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What would you recommend to store dates using Firebase between a datetime and a timestamp, and why?

NSCoder
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1 Answers1

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Use a timestamp as this is locale-agnostic and does not require formatting and parsing agreements between clients. It's also a bit shorter.

Furthermore, utilize Firebase.ServerValue.TIMESTAMP, rather than trusting the clients to have their clocks set correctly. If, for example, a client's clock is off by 5 minutes and you utilize the client timestamps in a chat conversation, then rendering back the messages, the time shown would appear to be 5 minutes in the future for other users.

Ojonugwa Jude Ochalifu
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Kato
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  • Thanks @Kato, spot on. I was actually getting the date from users using new Date(); and saving it to firebase which resulted in posts appearing to be from the future. – NSCoder Jun 14 '14 at 16:41
  • New docs here for TIMESTAMP: https://firebase.google.com/docs/reference/js/firebase.database.ServerValue#.TIMESTAMP – Michael Giovanni Pumo Jan 05 '17 at 16:23
  • @Kato re: " Firebase.ServerValue.TIMESTAMP". If i'm using the REST API directly, how would I generate the timestamp? – Learner Apr 29 '17 at 02:39