KSystemTimeZones

KDE 4.5 PyKDE API Reference

- KDE's Python API

# KSystemTimeZones Class Reference

`from PyKDE4.kdecore import *`

Inherits: QObject

## Detailed Description

Abstract class:
  This class can be used as a base class for new classes, but can not be instantiated directly.

The KSystemTimeZones class represents the system time zone database, consisting of a collection of individual system time zone definitions, indexed by name. Each individual time zone is defined in a KSystemTimeZone instance. Additional time zones (of any class derived from KTimeZone) may be added if desired.

At initialisation, KSystemTimeZones reads the zone.tab file to obtain the list of system time zones, and creates a KSystemTimeZone instance for each one.

Note that KSystemTimeZones is not derived from KTimeZones, but instead contains a KTimeZones instance which holds the system time zone database. Convenience static methods are defined to access its data, or alternatively you can access the KTimeZones instance directly via the timeZones() method.

As an example, find the local time in Oman corresponding to the local system time of 12:15:00 on 13th November 1999:

     QDateTime sampleTime(QDate(1999,11,13), QTime(12,15,0), Qt.LocalTime);
     KTimeZone local = KSystemTimeZones.local();
     KTimeZone oman  = KSystemTimeZones.zone("Asia/Muscat");
     QDateTime omaniTime = local.convert(oman, sampleTime);

Warning:
  The time zones in the KSystemTimeZones collection are by default instances of the KSystemTimeZone class, which uses the standard system libraries to access time zone data, and whose functionality is limited to what these libraries provide. For guaranteed accuracy for past time change dates and time zone abbreviations, you should use KSystemTimeZones.readZone() or the KTzfileTimeZone class instead, which provide accurate information from the time zone definition files (but are likely to incur more overhead).

Note:
  This class provides a facility to simulate the local system time zone. This facility is provided for testing purposes only, and is only available if the library is compiled with debug enabled. In release mode, simulation is inoperative and the real local system time zone is used at all times.

System time zone access

See also:
  KTimeZones, KSystemTimeZone, KSystemTimeZoneSource, KTzfileTimeZone

Author:
  David Jarvie <djarvie@kde.org>.

Author:
  S.R.Haque <srhaque@iee.org>.

## Methods
| __init__ (self)
## Static Methods
bool | isSimulated ()
KTimeZone | local ()
KTimeZone | readZone (QString name)
KTimeZone | realLocalZone ()
| setLocalZone (KTimeZone tz)
KTimeZones | timeZones ()
KTimeZone | zone (QString name)
QString | zoneinfoDir ()
{QString:KTimeZone} | zones ()

## Method Documentation

__init__ | ( |  | self ) |

## Static Method Documentation

bool isSimulated | ( |  | ) |

Check whether there is a simulated local system time zone.

Warning:
  This method is provided only for testing purposes, and should not be used in released code. If the library is compiled without debug enabled, isSimulated() always returns false. To avoid confusion, it is recommended that calls to it should be conditionally compiled, e.g.:

              #ifndef NDEBUG
                 if (KSystemTimeZones.isSimulated())
                 {
                     ...
                 }
              #endif

See also:
  setLocalZone()

KTimeZone local | ( |  | ) |

Returns the current local system time zone.

The idea of this routine is to provide a robust lookup of the local time zone. On Unix systems, there are a variety of mechanisms for setting this information, and no well defined way of getting it. For example, if you set your time zone to "Europe/London", then the tzname[] maintained by tzset() typically returns { "GMT", "BST" }. The function of this routine is to actually return "Europe/London" (or rather, the corresponding KTimeZone).

Note that depending on how the system stores its current time zone, this routine may return a synonym of the expected time zone. For example, "Europe/London", "Europe/Guernsey" and some other time zones are all identical and there may be no way for the routine to distinguish which of these is the correct zone name from the user's point of view.

Warning:
  For testing purposes, if the library is compiled with debug enabled, this method returns any simulated local system time zone set by setLocalZone(). If the library is compiled in release mode, it always returns the real local system time zone.

Returns:
  local system time zone. If necessary, we will use a series of heuristics which end by returning UTC. We will never return NULL. Note that if UTC is returned as a default, it may not belong to the the collection returned by KSystemTimeZones.zones().

KTimeZone readZone | ( | QString | name
| ) |  |  |

Returns the time zone with the given name, containing the full time zone definition read directly from the system time zone database. This may incur a higher overhead than zone(), but will provide whatever historical data the system holds.

Parameters:

  | name | name of time zone

Returns:
  time zone (usually a KTzfileTimeZone instance), or invalid if not found

See also:
  zone()

KTimeZone realLocalZone | ( |  | ) |

Return the real (not simulated) local system time zone.

Warning:
  This method is provided only for testing purposes, and should not be used in released code. If the library is compiled without debug enabled, local() and realLocalZone() both return the real local system time zone. To avoid confusion, it is recommended that calls to realLocalZone() should be conditionally compiled, e.g.:

              #ifndef NDEBUG
                 tz = KSystemTimeZones.realLocalZone();
              #endif

See also:
  setLocalZone()

setLocalZone | ( | KTimeZone | tz
| ) |  |  |

Set or clear the simulated local system time zone.

Warning:
  This method is provided only for testing purposes, and should not be used in released code. If the library is compiled without debug enabled, setLocalZone() has no effect. To avoid confusion, it is recommended that calls to it should be conditionally compiled, e.g.:

              #ifndef NDEBUG
                 KSystemTimeZones.setLocalZone(tz);
              #endif

Parameters:

  | tz | the time zone to simulate, or an invalid KTimeZone instance (i.e.
       tz.isValid() == false \endcode) to cancel
                 simulation

KTimeZones timeZones | ( |  | ) |

Returns the unique KTimeZones instance containing the system time zones collection. It is first created if it does not already exist.

Returns:
  time zones.

KTimeZone zone | ( | QString | name
| ) |  |  |

Returns the time zone with the given name.

The time zone definition is obtained using system library calls, and may not contain historical data. If you need historical time change data, use the potentially slower method readZone().

Parameters:

  | name | name of time zone

Returns:
  time zone (usually a KSystemTimeZone instance), or invalid if not found

See also:
  readZone()

QString zoneinfoDir | ( |  | ) |

Returns the location of the system time zone zoneinfo database.

Returns:
  path of directory containing the zoneinfo database

{QString:KTimeZone} zones | ( |  | ) |

Returns all the time zones defined in this collection.

Returns:
  time zone collection