Time Zone Issue in Edit Phase Dialog: Start Time and End Time Cannot be Saved Correctly

[hzxie]

Description

In the "Edit Phase" dialog, the Start Time and End Time fields do not account for time zones and default to UTC. As a result, when I set the End Time to "31 Mar 12:00 AM" in my local time, it is displayed incorrectly upon loading the page. Specifically, the time shows as "30 Mar 4:00 PM." After saving, I receive a "Phase Errors" message. When reopening the dialog, the End Time is displayed as "30 Mar 8:00 AM."

Steps to Reproduce

• Set timezone to UTC.
• Open the "Edit Phase" dialog.
• Set the End Time to "31 Mar 12:00 AM" in the local time.
• Save.
• Set timezone to UTC+8.
• Load the page again.
• Observe that the End Time changes to "30 Mar 4:00 PM". (Screenshot 1)
• Save.
• A "Phase Errors" message appears. (Screenshot 2)
• Reopen the "Edit Phase" dialog and notice that the End Time is now "30 Mar 8:00 AM". (Screenshot 3)

If you're having trouble understanding, please watch the video below, rather than closing the issue and stating that this is not a bug.

bandicam.2025-03-27.09-47-38-342.mp4

Screenshots

[ihsaan-ullah]

You are supposed to select a time in UTC time and not in your local time. e.g. If you are in UTC+5, you should select a time that is 5 hours earlier than your time. If you do this, do you still see any issue?

[hzxie]

Please reply to me before reading "Steps to Reproduce". Thanks!
I have told you how to reproduce this issue. Try to change to other timezones instead of UTC. Then you will know this issue.

[Didayolo]

@hzxie

I could not reproduce this bug.

When I change the timezone, refresh the page and come back to the editor, the time are still consistently 12am UTC.

Expected Behavior
The Start Time and End Time should properly account for the local time zone and not default to UTC. The times should remain consistent and display correctly when saved and loaded again.

This is NOT the expected behavior. The start time and end time settings should always be stored and display in UTC time to avoid any confusion. They should indeed remain consistent when saving and loading the page again, which seems to be the case from my tests.

[Didayolo]

By the way, if you are seeing the error message about conflicting phases dates, you are not able to save. That may explain why the values appear to change.

I'm closing this issue, feel free to add more information or re-open it if you feel like the problem you are reporting does actually exist.

[hzxie]

THIS BUG DOES EXIST. Please reopen this issue.
Try to reproduce the issue by setting your timezone to UTC+8 (or any timezone other than UTC).

The video below shows that even when I select the time in the UTC timezone, it still does not work.
The test phase will end on 28 March 2025 at 12:00 AM (UTC+8), which is equivalent to 27 March 2025 at 4:00 PM (GMT).
When I save it in the dialog, the end time automatically changes to 27 March 2025 at 8:00 AM (GMT), and then this error occurs.

bandicam.2025-03-27.09-57-28-076.mp4

The video below demonstrates the "Steps to Reproduce".
This error is essentially caused by the same issue described above.

bandicam.2025-03-27.09-47-38-342.mp4

[Didayolo]

We'll examinate this issue, thanks for the details.

[cl4yton]

For what it is worth, I can report that I am having the same problem. When creating a Phase, when I set the Start Time and End Time (assuming UTC-0), save, and then go back to Edit the Phase, the Start Time and End Time have been changed to different values that I did not enter.

[ihsaan-ullah]

I can reproduce this problem. We will check and fix it soon

@cl4yton for now you can select the time in UTC-0 and save the competition. This will save the correct times. Going back to edit phase before saving indeed shows incorrect times that we will check.

[ihsaan-ullah]

@hzxie what date and time in UTC+0 do you want to set for the Test Phase of your competition? I tried changing the date/time in your competition but the dates were locked as reported in #1793.

[hzxie]

PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE MY DATE/TIME OF MY COMPLETION. This is an online competition.
I have already set the expected time by setting my timezone to UTC.

Actually, the bug you mentioned is a different one (which I haven't reported). This issue can be manually fixed by clearing the current date by deleting the content in the textbox.