gns3-server/docs/gns3-copilot/troubleshooting/datetime-timezone-issue.md

Datetime Timezone Issue

Problem Description

The API returns datetime strings without timezone suffixes, causing frontend JavaScript to parse them as local time instead of UTC time.

Example

Aspect	Value
Actual time (Beijing)	2026-03-07 01:30
Backend returns	2026-03-06T16:31:36.547762 (no timezone)
Frontend displays	March 6, 16:31
Should display	March 7, 00:31 (UTC 16:31 + 8 hours)

Root Cause

• Backend stores UTC time in database as naive datetime (no timezone info)
• FastAPI's jsonable_encoder serializes datetime as ISO 8601 without timezone suffix
• JavaScript new Date() treats strings without 'Z' or timezone offset as local time

Backend intention: 2026-03-06T16:31:36Z (UTC)
Actually returned: 2026-03-06T16:31:36.547762 (no timezone)
JavaScript parses as: local time 16:31
Should be: UTC 16:31 → Beijing time 00:31 (next day)

---

Frontend Solutions

Solution 1: Use dayjs UTC Parsing (Recommended)

import dayjs from 'dayjs';
import utc from 'dayjs/plugin/utc';
import timezone from 'dayjs/plugin/timezone';

dayjs.extend(utc);
dayjs.extend(timezone);

// Parse naive datetime as UTC
const createdAt = '2026-03-06T16:31:36.547762';
const date = dayjs.utc(createdAt).tz('Asia/Shanghai');
console.log(date.format('YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm')); // 2026-03-07 00:31

Solution 2: Add 'Z' Suffix Manually

// Utility function to normalize API dates
function parseAPIDate(dateStr: string): Date {
  // Add 'Z' suffix if no timezone info present
  const normalized = dateStr.includes('Z') || dateStr.includes('+')
    ? dateStr
    : `${dateStr}Z`;
  return new Date(normalized);
}

// Usage
const date = parseAPIDate('2026-03-06T16:31:36.547762');
console.log(date.toLocaleString('zh-CN', { timeZone: 'Asia/Shanghai' }));

Solution 3: Global Axios Interceptor (Most Thorough)

import axios from 'axios';

api.interceptors.response.use((response) => {
  // Recursively normalize all date fields
  function normalizeDates(obj: any): any {
    // Match ISO 8601 datetime pattern without timezone
    if (typeof obj === 'string' && /^\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}T\d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2}/.test(obj)) {
      return obj.includes('Z') || obj.includes('+') ? obj : `${obj}Z`;
    }
    if (Array.isArray(obj)) {
      return obj.map(normalizeDates);
    }
    if (obj && typeof obj === 'object') {
      return Object.fromEntries(
        Object.entries(obj).map(([k, v]) => [k, normalizeDates(v)])
      );
    }
    return obj;
  }

  response.data = normalizeDates(response.data);
  return response;
});

---

Backend Context

Current Implementation

File: gns3server/api/server.py:58-64

application = FastAPI(
    title="GNS3 controller API",
    description="This page describes the public controller API for GNS3",
    version="v3",
    docs_url=None,
    redoc_url=None
)

File: gns3server/db/models/base.py

from fastapi.encoders import jsonable_encoder

class Base:
    def asjson(self):
        return jsonable_encoder(self.asdict())

Datetime Flow

1. Database stores naive datetime (no timezone)
2. FastAPI uses jsonable_encoder to serialize
3. Output format: YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.ffffff (no 'Z' suffix)
4. JavaScript interprets as local time

Affected Fields

• created_at
• updated_at
• last_login
• Any other datetime fields in API responses

---

Testing Checklist

• Verify datetime displays correctly in Beijing timezone (UTC+8)
• Test with other timezones (e.g., UTC-5, UTC+0)
• Check daylight saving time transitions (if applicable)
• Verify datetime input/insertion still works correctly

---

Related Files

• Backend: gns3server/api/server.py
• Backend: gns3server/db/models/base.py
• Schemas: gns3server/schemas/controller/base.py

---

License

Copyright © 2025 Yue Guobin (岳国宾)

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Summary

You are free to:

• Share — Copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
• Adapt — Remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose

Under the following terms:

• Attribution — You must give appropriate credit to Yue Guobin (岳国宾), provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made.
• ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Full license text: DESIGN_DOCS_LICENSE