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Calculating epoch time in Automation rule?

Ben Hart_pqfuat

I'm wanting to create a manual action that will perform a web request. The payload of this request defines a 'startDateTime' and an 'endDateTime', both of which are represented in epoch -> milliseconds.

The action should provide a value of 1 hour by default.. I am thinking about a second option for a custom time range but that's not as important to me as this 1 hour span is.

So my idea was, create a variable for {{now}} except it complains when I try to save {{now}} under a Create Variable step.

Also I got errors trying to set a smart value with math functions..

Anyone out there happen to do something like this?

Accepted answers

Ben Hart_pqfuat

This is my first experiment:

A webcall to https://currentmillis.com/time/minutes-since-unix-epoch.php

Create var: epochMinutes {{webResponse.body}}

Add audit log: {{webResponse.body}}

Create var: epochMilli {{#=}}{{epochMinutes}} * 60000{{/}}

Add audit log: epochMilli

Now in the audit log, the log step for epochMilli is not displayed for some reason. However if I add a Then add comment, and define the comment with the same math syntax it does get added.

Bill Sheboy

Hi @Ben Hart

I recall the easiest way to do this is:

{{#now}}format="toMillis"{{/}}

That will return the UNIX timestamp to milliseconds.

If you need some adjustments at the same time, such as incrementing a field, this would work:

{{#issue.Start date}}func=plusMonths(1), format="toMillis"{{/}}

FYI...I also did the brute-force calculation before I learned this approach, building the math expression for milliseconds since the start of 1970, and confirmed the results were the same.

Kind regards,
Bill

All comments

Ben Hart_pqfuat

This is my first experiment:

A webcall to https://currentmillis.com/time/minutes-since-unix-epoch.php

Create var: epochMinutes {{webResponse.body}}

Add audit log: {{webResponse.body}}

Create var: epochMilli {{#=}}{{epochMinutes}} * 60000{{/}}

Add audit log: epochMilli

Now in the audit log, the log step for epochMilli is not displayed for some reason. However if I add a Then add comment, and define the comment with the same math syntax it does get added.

Ben Hart_pqfuat

Ok next step.. another variable adding 3.6M seconds to {{epochMilli}}. This value, even though shortened to 1.71501054E12 actually works!

So with vars {{epochMilli}} and {{epochOneHour}} I can do what I was wanting to do.. which was an Action to send a device SDT to LogicMonitor for 1 hour.

Bill Sheboy

Hi @Ben Hart

I recall the easiest way to do this is:

{{#now}}format="toMillis"{{/}}

That will return the UNIX timestamp to milliseconds.

If you need some adjustments at the same time, such as incrementing a field, this would work:

{{#issue.Start date}}func=plusMonths(1), format="toMillis"{{/}}

FYI...I also did the brute-force calculation before I learned this approach, building the math expression for milliseconds since the start of 1970, and confirmed the results were the same.

Kind regards,
Bill

Ben Hart_pqfuat

Works fine! And it's shorter than my route! Thanks man!

Ste404

@Bill Sheboy is there a way to do this in reverse? I have the Unix timestamp coming in from a webhook in milliseconds and want to display the date in an issue.

Bill Sheboy

Hi @Ste404

One way to do this would be using knowledge about the "start of epoch time", create a variable with that value, and then add the milliseconds to it:

action: create variable
- name: varStartOfTime
- smart value: {{now.withYear(1970).withDayOfYear(1).toDateTimeAtStartOfDay}}
...something to get your Unix timestamp in milliseconds: let's assume it is in a variable named varMillis
the date / time for that would be: {{varStartOfTime.toDate.plusMillis(varMillis.asNumber)}}

Kind of a hack although I expect it should work.

Kind regards,
Bill

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