jhume's avatar
jhume
Visitor
9 months ago
Status:
New Idea

Please return all AlertSite API results in UTC time

Currently any results from the AlertSite API are returned using whatever time zone is configured for the entire account.  The problem with that is that the widespread standard used by most tools/apps is to assume that API results are in UTC time.   Because of this, we are unable to pull data from the AlertSite API into tools like Grafana or Dynatrace, not without having some kind of custom script in between to modify the time fields to UTC. 

 

Please either change all API results to use UTC time, regardless of the account settings, or at least add a parameter to all API Requests to have the results returned in UTC time.  Or, maybe a setting in the Accounts page that toggles all API results to use UTC time?

 

Also, when I say UTC, I don't mean GMT, as that is a deprecated method of storing and displaying time, since GMT has to be adjusted based on whether or not Daylight Savings time is currently active.  UTC does not have this limitation, hence it's widespread use in nearly every modern database and/or API).

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  • davidflats's avatar
    davidflats
    New Member
    3 months ago

    Hello 

    We appreciate you taking the time to provide comments and concerns about the AlertSite API's time zone setup. We have taken note of your idea to have the Accounts page's results toggle to UTC time, or to have the API provide results in UTC time. We are aware of how crucial it is to standardize time zones in order to ensure compatibility with a wide range of instruments and programs, such as Dynatrace or Grafana. We will most certainly look into putting these choices into practice to improve the AlertSite API's compatibility and usability.

    Regards

    David Warner

    Prestige Rock Cliff

  • jhume's avatar
    jhume
    Visitor
    5 months ago

    Man, I'm revisiting this as we REALLY have a need to be able to query data into Grafana from AlertSite, but it just isn't possible without setting our ENTIRE account to use UTC time, which would make the web console extremely confusing for all users as they'd have to convert the UTC time to their own local time.