Timezone API field and IANA timezones

API Q&A
#1

I am trying to push timezone information in the API via the time_zone field. The problem I have is that I am using IANA timezones (a list of supported ones are here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones) but they don’t all appear in the Infusionsoft list of supported timezones.

For example, if I try to send “Australia/Perth” as my timezone it is rejected by the api as it does not exist on the Infusionsoft side. Instead I need to check for this timezone and convert it to “Asia/Shanghai”. This is true for many other timezones such as “Australia/Hobart” - again it is not supported in Infusionsoft and I need to change it to “Australia/Sydney”.

Is there an easy way to manage this conversion, via a C# library or something similar, or do I have to make a time consuming mapping between the available IANA timezones and the ones I find in the Infusionsoft list?

#2

Hi @Ben_Smart,

This doesn’t address your question directly but is an alternative approach.

I ended up capturing geolocation via IP Stack and storing the time zone and other fields in custom defined contact fields under a separate tab on the contact record.

Below is a mocked up example, to protect the contact’s identity, the IP address doesn’t match up to the street address but you get the idea.

custom-geolocation-tab

With this information even when Infusionsoft fails to recognize the time zone, I can still do logical queries based on the custom field values captured. Granted this information is captured via a locally hosted web form and not an Infusionsoft hosted form but local forms give you this flexibility to capture the information.

I had to have a developer custom code a WordPress function call to conceal the IP Stack unique API key to avoid hackers scraping the value if I left it visible.

Just a thought that might help with an alternative approach but not if you are looking to fix Infusionsoft’s native method.

Aly