Review date fields in index and downloads: should usually not contain time component

14606
Reporter: ahahn
Type: Task
Summary: Review date fields in index and downloads: should usually not contain time component
Priority: Major
Status: Open
Created: 2014-01-09 15:42:51.652
Updated: 2014-01-10 11:56:33.793
        
Description: "Gathering dates" (and probably other date fields as well) appear to use a datetime format that includes a time component as well as the date. This suggests a precision that is usually not supplied by the source data, and that leads to real errors when, e.g., a receiving party "corrects these values for time zones, daylight saving time settings and the like.

This requires some discussion on how to handle. Suggestion: dates should be date only, and not contain a time component, to avoid wrong time default values being added. As a minimum, portal UI display of such values as well as data downloads and web service results should never show the time component, only the date. However, this needs careful consideration, as time might become an important element in future, e.g. for automatic recordings such as continuous samplers of photo traps etc.

(source: email comm. from Cees Hof, 9.1.2014)

This concerns the handling of occurrence data from publishers in the network. The situation is different for system datestamps (updated / modified / deleted).]]>