time is out the UTC offset

[zleonska]

Good morning, sir!

Thank-you for all your previous help. I am very happy with the way your theme turned out!

As observant as I am I just noticed this discrepancy between the markdown time and the published results.

date = 2025-03-10T13:25:00+00:00 -- is out the -6 hours of UTC offset
date = 2025-03-10T13:25:00-06:00 -- using UTC offset gives the correct time for MDT

timezone = "America/Edmonton"
timeformat = "%A, %B %d, %Y at %H:%M %Z"

Is it normal to add the -06 or -07 to the time in markdown? Or am I missing something obvious again.

All the best to you,
Zuzanna

[en9inerd]

@zleonska Hi!
Yes, that’s expected behavior. In Zola, if you don’t specify a timezone offset in the date field (e.g., 2025-03-10T13:25:00), it is interpreted as being in UTC. However, if you explicitly set a timezone offset (e.g., 2025-03-10T13:25:00-06:00), it will be treated correctly in that timezone.

The date() function in Tera follows this rule - if no timezone is provided in the date string, it assumes UTC and doesn’t convert it. But if a timezone is specified, it will respect that.

If you have timezone = "America/Edmonton" in your config.toml, Zola should correctly convert the time when rendering it, as long as the date includes a timezone offset or is correctly interpreted.

[zleonska]

Morning Greetings!
Again, I thank your prompt and helpful reply. Bare needing the answer to life, the universe, and everything, I believe my plague of questions is at an end. You provided me an enjoyable playground and a blog to call my own

May the code fall together in perfect order,
Zuzanna