Handling Date/Time and Time zone data types

In the Lotus Domino form, a field of Date/Time type can be configured to represent only a date value, time value, or both date and time values. This configuration is done while creating/editing the form in Domino Designer. So, when a document is created for such a form, the value can be a date, time, or a datetime.

For example, if a form representing a Calendar has the following fields:
Table 1. Example
Fields Domino Data type
startDate Date/Time (represents only date)
startTime Date/Time (represents only time)
endDate Date/Time (represents only date)
endTime Date/Time (represents only time)
bothDateAndTime Date/Time (represents both date and time)
timeZone Time zone
Subject Text
Body Text

If a valid document is created for this form, then:
  • startDate and endDate will only accept a date value
  • startTime and endTime will only accept a time value
  • bothDateAndTime will only accept date and time
  • timeZone will only accept a time zone value
From Cast Iron version 6.1.0.9 onwards, Date/Time data type is handled as described in the following points:
  1. A Domino field of type Date/Time is represented as xsd:string in the map input and map output of the activity.
  2. The only supported syntax of the input values for the Date/Time fields in map input are:
    1. If the field represents only date: MM/dd/yyyy. Example : 05/27/2012.
    2. If the field represents only time (24 hour format): HH:mm:ss. Example: 22:15:30.
    3. If the field represents both date and time (24 hour format): MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss. Example: 05/31/2012 23:59:59.
  3. The output from the activity also follows the same syntax as the Date/Time fields, in most cases.
  4. The preceding syntax is used by the map input and output irrespective of:
    1. The date and time format of the operating system on which the Domino server is running.
    2. The date and time format settings configured when creating the form in Domino designer.
  5. The Time zone value is also represented as xsd:string in the map input and output. The following technote from Lotus Domino gives more information about the syntax: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21163045. For more information about Time zone in Lotus Domino, see Lotus Domino documentation.
Note:
  1. In the Cast Iron 6.1.0.6 version and the earlier versions, the Domino Date/Time field was generated as xsd:date, which was not able to handle all combinations of the input values.
  2. Old projects developed using the 6.1.0.6 version or earlier versions that are already running, will work fine with same old behavior, that is, Date/Time represented as xsd:date).
  3. For all the orchestrations created newly using the 6.1.0.9 version and later versions, Date/Time field will be generated as xsd:string.
  4. If the old projects require the new behavior, that is, to generate Date/Time as xsd:string, then the objects need to be refreshed from the Configure panel of the activity in the Studio 6.1.0.9 version or later versions. Mapping must be validated after this change.



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Timestamp icon Last updated: Thursday, December 17, 2015


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