Generate an RFC 3339 timestamp similar to Google Tasks API?

Question

I am in the process of building an app that syncs with Google Tasks. As part part of the syncing, I want to compare the local task and the API task, and see which one has be

Answer 1

It seems like a lot of complicated answers have been given, but this works just fine, does it not?

(new Date()).toISOString()

Answer 2

If you are using Google Script, another option is to use Utilities.formatDate URL below:

https://developers.google.com/apps-script/reference/utilities/utilities#formatDate(Date,String,String)

Sample code from above URL:

// This formats the date as Greenwich Mean Time in the format
// year-month-dateThour-minute-second.
var formattedDate = Utilities.formatDate(new Date(), "GMT", "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss'Z'");

Answer 3

The Z behind the first date indicates it's UTC (Zulu) time, without the Z it will use the local (computer) time, which could be several time zones off.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTC

Answer 4

try this:

Date.prototype.setRFC3339 = function(dString) {
    var utcOffset, offsetSplitChar;
    var offsetMultiplier = 1;
    var dateTime = dString.split("T");
    var date = dateTime[0].split("-");
    var time = dateTime[1].split(":");
    var offsetField = time[time.length - 1];
    var offsetString;
    offsetFieldIdentifier = offsetField.charAt(offsetField.length - 1);
    if (offsetFieldIdentifier == "Z") {
        utcOffset = 0;
        time[time.length - 1] = offsetField.substr(0, offsetField.length - 2);
    } else {
        if (offsetField[offsetField.length - 1].indexOf("+") != -1) {
            offsetSplitChar = "+";
            offsetMultiplier = 1;
        } else {
            offsetSplitChar = "-";
            offsetMultiplier = -1;
        }
        offsetString = offsetField.split(offsetSplitChar);
        time[time.length - 1] == offsetString[0];
        offsetString = offsetString[1].split(":");
        utcOffset = (offsetString[0] * 60) + offsetString[1];
        utcOffset = utcOffset * 60 * 1000;
    }

    this.setTime(Date.UTC(date[0], date[1] - 1, date[2], time[0], time[1], time[2]) + (utcOffset * offsetMultiplier));
    return this;
};

source: http://blog.toppingdesign.com/2009/08/13/fast-rfc-3339-date-processing-in-javascript/

Answer 5

The formatting is ISO so (new Date()).toISOString() will give you that form. Which as I'm reading might need to be shimmed:

/* use a function for the exact format desired... */
function ISODateString(d){
 function pad(n){return n<10 ? '0'+n : n}
 return d.getUTCFullYear()+'-'
      + pad(d.getUTCMonth()+1)+'-'
      + pad(d.getUTCDate())+'T'
      + pad(d.getUTCHours())+':'
      + pad(d.getUTCMinutes())+':'
      + pad(d.getUTCSeconds())+'Z'}

var d = new Date();
print(ISODateString(d)); // prints something like 2009-09-28T19:03:12Z

Source: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Date

Answer 6

I've found the moment.js library nice for working with time in javascript. moment().format() yields a timestamp in the format expected by the Google API for a datetime. Or, to not depend on the default format being correct for your application,

moment().format("YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ssZ")

All the string options (including fractional seconds if that's what you need): http://momentjs.com/docs/#/displaying/format/