Converting Weekly Operating Hours Schedule to UTC for MySQL Storage in PHP

1. To adjust the add and retrieve functions to account for potential day shifts when converting times, you can store all times in the database in UTC instead of local time. When adding new operating hours, convert the local times to UTC before inserting them into the database. When retrieving operating hours, convert the UTC times back to the local time of the account using the TimeZone class before returning them.

2. In terms of structuring the database and application logic to handle timezone issues more cleanly, you could consider the following approach:

– Store all times in the database in UTC to avoid confusion with time zone conversions.

– Use the account’s timezone information to convert the times to and from UTC when interacting with the database.

– Maintain consistency in handling time conversions throughout the application to ensure accurate representation of operating hours.

3. Here’s a revised version of the add and retrieve functions that take into account time zone conversions:

// Adjusted add function to handle time zone conversions
public function add($account_id, $weekday, $open, $close, $entry_id = null) {
    $timeZone = new TimeZone($this->pdo);
    $open_utc = $timeZone->convert_to_utc($account_id, $open);
    $close_utc = $timeZone->convert_to_utc($account_id, $close);

    // Insert the operating hours with UTC times
    // Your existing code to insert into the database
}

// Adjusted retrieve function to handle time zone conversions
public function retrieve($account_id) {
    $timeZone = new TimeZone($this->pdo);
    $operatingHours = [];

    // Retrieve operating hours from the database
    // Your existing code to fetch operating hours

    // Convert operating hours to local time using account's timezone
    foreach ($operatingHours as $day => $hours) {
        foreach ($hours as $index => $hour) {
            $operatingHours[$day][$index]['open'] = $timeZone->convert_to_local($account_id, $hour['open']);
            $operatingHours[$day][$index]['close'] = $timeZone->convert_to_local($account_id, $hour['close']);
        }
    }

    return $operatingHours;
}

By consistently using UTC in the database and converting times to and from the account’s local timezone, you can simplify the handling of operating hours across different time zones. This approach ensures that the data remains accurate and consistent regardless of the time zone differences.

If you have any further questions or need more clarification, feel free to ask!