Setting different time zone in IIS or web.config

Question

I am logging time in many places

If Request.DynamicSettings.AirlineSettings.AirlineGeneralSettings.TimeLogEnabled Then
                        StartTime = DateTime.Now
                        LogTime(Reflection.MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod.DeclaringType.FullName, Reflection.MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod.Name, StartTime, DateTime.Now, "AB-SCR(I)", 0,)
    End If

all places i have used

DateTime.Now

I am facing an issue now, I am currently hosting this in a gulf server, GMT +4:00 I need to host this same project for another country at Gmt +3Gmt for this hosting i need time to be logged using that country's local time.

Is there any way to do this, without having to modify each and every line of my code.

i have seen this article timzone with asp.net but as my service is already up i have a lot of codes to change, i am looking for a simpler solution.

thanks.

Answer 1

A few things:

1. You cannot change the time zone in the IIS configuration or web.config. This is not an IIS problem, but rather a problem in your application code.

2. DateTime.Now should never be used in a server side application, such as an ASP.Net web application. Read The case against DateTime.Now .

3. If you are just timing how long something takes to run, don't use DateTime at all. Instead, use System.Diagnostics.Stopwatch .

    Stopwatch sw = Stopwatch.StartNew(); // ...do some work ... sw.Stop(); TimeSpan elapsed = sw.Elapsed; // how long it took will be in the Elapsed property 

4. If you actually want the current time in a specific time zone, then you need to know the time zone identifier. (GMT+4 and GMT+3 are not time zones, but rather time zone offsets see "Time Zone != Offset" in the timezone tag wiki .) You can see a list of Windows time zones by using TimeZoneInfo.GetSystemTimeZones() , or by calling tzutil /l on the command line.

   Then in your application:

    string tz = "Arabian Standard Time"; DateTime now = TimeZoneInfo.ConvertTimeFromUtc(DateTime.UtcNow, tz); 

   You should probably refactor your code such that this is done inside your LogTime method. Then you will have only one place to set the time zone for your application.