Jira/Confluence: Is Resolved Date stored with timezone information in mind?

Daniel Schealler January 14, 2019

In Confluence, I've been making use of the Jira Issue/Filter macro.

In a project summary page, I've created a filter that is displaying Updated and Resolved information.

It looks like Updated is a DateTime, and Resolved is a Date.

The trick I'm getting for an issue that I have just resolved is that it is displaying the following values:

  • Updated: Jan 15, 2019 10:42
  • Resolved: Jan 14, 2019

Screen snippet below:

Capture.PNG

I'm guessing that this is a timezone related issue. I am based in New Zealand, which is currently in NZDT (+13:00) - so my assumption is that this is being stored as a Date value using a system-level timezone instead. This would explain why, relative to my timezone, it looks as if the Resolved date is coming through as yesterday's date.

I'm trying to use this particular filter to communicate the project status to a client, and they've requested resolution dates be included. But this is misleading.

I can always just drop the 'Resolved' date from the list and use the 'Updated' date to represent the resolution. That's not 100% accurate as the 'Updated' date may change after the time the issue is resolved, but in practice that will be rare so it's probably okay in practice even if it's wrong in principle.

But that still kind of bugs me. In principle I would prefer this to work so that the resolution date shows the date in my local timezone that the issue was resolved.

So, questions:

  1. Have I interpreted this correctly?
  2. Is this a known issue in Jira?
  3. Is there likely to be a 'fix' for this?
  4. Is there a workaround or a setting I can change in the meantime to get this to work the way I want it to work?

Thanks for your time!

 

2 answers

0 votes
Fox April 12, 2021

Hi, we are seeing the same issue, found the below after some searching -

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFSERVER-42863

Ticket for cloud -

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-42863

Thanks

Daniel Schealler April 12, 2021

Thanks! I'll check them out.

For a bit of context for yourself and others that may be reading: I wound up using a manually maintained table for communicating that information to the client.

Frustrating because it's more work prior to each meeting to manually update the project page from something that could in principle have been covered automatically, but not the end of the world.

0 votes
Taranjeet Singh
Community Leader
Community Leader
Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
January 14, 2019

@Daniel Schealler

 

  1. Have I interpreted this correctly? 
    No, "Resolved" and "Updated" system fields use the same format of datetime. Please refer the below Atlassian docs for more details:https://confluence.atlassian.com/jiracore/advanced-searching-fields-reference-933082903.html#Advancedsearching-fieldsreference-ResolvedResolutionDateresolutionDateResolved

https://confluence.atlassian.com/jiracore/advanced-searching-fields-reference-933082903.html#Advancedsearching-fieldsreference-UpdatedUpdatedDateupdatedDateUpdated

 

2. Is this a known issue in Jira?

This is not an issue in JIRA. This is by JIRA design.

 

3. Is there likely to be a 'fix' for this?

N/A, since this is not an issue

 

4. Is there a workaround or a setting I can change in the meantime to get this to work the way I want it to work?

JIRA's datetime fields either show relative values or absolute values and this JIRA setting is global for a JIRA instance.

Please refer the below Atlassian doc for more details on how to set up JIRA to show the absolute dates for datetime fields:

https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirakb/disable-relative-dates-in-jira-applications-414187622.html

Daniel Schealler January 14, 2019

Thanks Taranjeet.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the documentation you've given me seems to be for Jira Server.

I'm running Jira and Confluence in the cloud.

Additionally, I am using the Confluence "Jira Issue/Filter" macro to display these results. It seems to be the display of the results that is confusing matters.

Is there a method I can use in that macro that will display the Resolved values in the same manner as the Updated values are displayed when using the "Jira Issue/Filter" macro in Confluence?

Taranjeet Singh
Community Leader
Community Leader
Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
January 15, 2019

@Daniel Schealler If you are using JIRA and Confluence Cloud, please reach out to Atlassian Support for your issues/queries or any settings that you want to apply to your JIRA/Confluence instance.

 

Additionally, try to use fields like "resolutionDate" instead of "Resolved" to see what results are returned by it?

Taranjeet Singh
Community Leader
Community Leader
Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
January 15, 2019

@Daniel Schealler Alos this behavior for datetime fields display in JIRA issues macro, is an existing Confluence bug, that has not been resolved yet. Please see this on Atlassian Bug tracker here:

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFSERVER-26381

There is also a workaround listed there if it help you, but be aware that the change will impact all datetime fields and their display in Confluence.

Daniel Schealler January 15, 2019

Thanks again Taranjeet.

"please reach out to Atlassian Support for your issues/queries or any settings that you want to apply to your JIRA/Confluence instance."

I was checking in with the community first to see if there is a known issue that I can reference before contacting Atlassian Support.

I'll likely be contacting them shortly if the community isn't familiar with this issue.

Additionally, try to use fields like "resolutionDate" instead of "Resolved" to see what results are returned by it?

There is no 'resolutionDate' option in the macro. Screen snippet below.

Untitled.png

Alos this behavior for datetime fields display in JIRA issues macro, is an existing Confluence bug, that has not been resolved yet. Please see this on Atlassian Bug tracker here:

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFSERVER-26381

That listed issue link states that the problem is around displaying the time on custom fields.

However, based on documentation you already gave me, it looks like the Resolved field is not a custom field, but is a core part of Jira. Are you sure that this applies here?

Also: That issue is stating that custom date time fields are not displaying the time portion. I think I misspoke earlier: I don't mind either way if the time is present or not, that doesn't matter for my particular use case.

My problem is that an issue that was resolved on January 15th (local time, NZDT) is being reported in the Confluence macro as having a resolved date of January 14th (timezone unverified). The value is _wrong_ in the sense of what is being reported back to the client.

It sounds like this is not a known issue for the community at this time.

I'll leave this question open for a while to see what else comes in. If nothing else comes through, I'll raise it with Atlassian support and see what comes up.

Suggest an answer

Log in or Sign up to answer