Get local timezone in django

I personally would advice against using a TIME_ZONE setting other than UTC. I remember having problems with this in the past, be it that the database was operating in a different timezone (saving values in a different timezone) than the Django backend was using. That meant a lot of hassle to compare the times, changing them forth and back depending on what you are doing.

A good practice is usually to use one timezone in the backend (lets say UTC) and convert the time in the frontend to the users timezone you are serving.

I’ve created a simple middleware to handle all of this stuff for you:

https://github.com/Miserlou/django-easy-timezones

Simply install it and follow the instructions and you’re done!

1. Install django-easy-timezones

   pip install django-easy-timezones pytz pygeoip
   

2. Add “easy-timezones” to your INSTALLED_APPS setting like this:

   INSTALLED_APPS = (
   ...
   'easy-timezones',
   )
   

3. Add EasyTimezoneMiddleware to your MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES

   MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES = (
   ...
   'easy-timezones.middleware.EasyTimezoneMiddleware',
   )
   

4. Add a path to the MaxMind GeoIP database in your settings file:

   GEOIP_DATABASE = '/path/to/your/geoip/database/GeoIP.dat'
   

5. Enable localtime in your templates.

   {% load tz %}
       The UTC time is {{ object.date }}
   {% localtime on %}
       The local time is {{ object.date }}
   {% endlocaltime %}
   

6. Tada!

After cry a lot, I could show the correct date for my country doing something like this:

>>> from django.utils.timezone import get_current_timezone
>>> from front.models import Training

>>> tz = get_current_timezone()
>>> stored_date = Training.objects.first().start_date
datetime.datetime(2015, 4, 25, 17, 0, tzinfo=<UTC>)

>>> desired_date = stored_date + tz.utcoffset(stored_date)
datetime.datetime(2015, 4, 25, 14, 0, tzinfo=<UTC>)

The tzinfo attribute is shows utc, but the date and time is correct to show.

UPDATE 30/10/2015 (Django 1.8)

I’m using another approach today, that is more django friendly

>>> from django.utils import timezone
>>> from trainings.models import Training
>>> value = Training.objects.first().date

>>> value
datetime.datetime(2015, 10, 23, 11, 32, 54, 633151, tzinfo=<UTC>)

>>> timezone.localtime(value)
datetime.datetime(2015, 10, 23, 9, 32, 54, 633151, tzinfo=<django.utils.timezone.LocalTimezone object at 0x7fa6129784a8>)

localtime is a template filter, this may be helpful.

https://github.com/django/django/blob/1.8.4/django/utils/timezone.py#L298

Code sample:

from django.utils.timezone import localtime 

desired_datetime = localtime(stored_datetime)

I have came to the same problem. In my settings, I have set the TIME_ZONE, but the time in MySql still UTC time.

# settings.py
TIME_ZONE = 'Asia/Shanghai'

Then I found,in settings.py, USE_TZ has be set to False

USE_TZ = False

As pointed out by @MagicLAMP, it only works for single time zone site, please check time-zones if your site is international or if daylight savings happen where your site is used.

Just use

timezone.localtime(arg)

It took me a while to find this, but this is how I solved it. I guess the user’s timezone from IP address and then do this in Django 2 and beyond:

{% load tz %}
{% timezone "Europe/Paris" %}
    Paris time: {{ object.date }}
{% endtimezone %}

1: Define the timezone in your view

from django.utils import timezone

variable = timezone.now()

2: Then use it in your template

{% load l10n %}

Teresina, {{variable |localize}}.

I have found easy solution based on custom template filter.

Here is my settings.py:

TIME_ZONE = 'UTC'
USE_L10N = True
USE_TZ = True

In my model named Marker I save datetime as 2022-09-15 17:56:26.936210:

class Marker(models.Model):
    ....
    created_at = models.DateTimeField(default=now, verbose_name="Date")

Next I create a new Python package with custom template filter using a path project/app/templatetags/some_file_name.py

In some_file_name.py we do register a filter and write it’s behavior:

from django import template
from django.utils.formats import date_format

register = template.Library()


@register.filter
def to_user_tz_short(dt):
    """Format UTC timestamp from DB to local user's short datetime format with appropriate timezone."""
    user_tz = date_format(
        dt.astimezone(), format="SHORT_DATETIME_FORMAT", use_l10n=True
    )
    return user_tz

Next load our filter in template with code:

{% load some_file_name %}

And finally apply filter to item:

{{ marker.created_at|to_user_tz_short }}

So, in my case the datetime is save in DB as I mentioned earlier like 2022-09-15 17:56:26.936210 and after filtering, in template it shows as 15.09.2022 20:56 according to my local time zone and date format.

Before filter: 2022-09-15 17:56:26.936210 After filter -> 15.09.2022 20:56