TimesTen timeszone problem

Question

Hi Chris and team,
We are currently facing a weird problem with TimesTen version 11.2.1.8.0. (I recently upgraded TT from 11.2.1.4.0 to 11.2.1.8.0)
We are sending data (date, among other fields, which is specifically causing problems) from the front end using a desktop-based application. The date entered thru the front-end is in GMT and this is the desired timezone that we would like to store when this transactional data reaches TimesTen DB. But, for some unknown reason, the date is being converted to EST before storing. FYI, our linux box where TT resides, is in EST.
Are you aware of any auto-conversion of date in the background thru the XLAs? I am just guessing...
Please let me know since this problem wasn't existing in the previous TimesTen version of 11.2.1.4.0.
Thanks,
Vikram

Answer 1

Given the table:
Table CHRIS.TZTEST:
Columns:
TSBEFORE TIMESTAMP (6)
TSAFTER TIMESTAMP (6)
SD1 TIMESTAMP (6)
SD2 TIMESTAMP (6) DEFAULT sysdate
COMMENT VARCHAR2 (50) INLINE
and this simple example program:
package com.timesten.CJTest;
import java.sql.*;
import java.lang.*;
import java.util.*;
import com.timesten.jdbc.TimesTenConnection;
class CJTest
// class variables
// All set to a default value, the default values
// can be overwritten using command line options
// JDBC defaultDSN string
static public String defaultDSN = "sampledb_1121";
// JDBC URL string
static public String url = "jdbc:timesten:" + defaultDSN;
// JDBC user string
static public String username = null;
// JDBC password string
static public String password = null;
// Prepared Insert statement for insert xacts
static PreparedStatement prepInsStmt;
// class constants
public static final String insertStmt =
     "insert into tztest(tsbefore, tsafter, sd1, comment) values (?, ?, SYSDATE, ?)";
// Function: main
// Populates the database and instantiate a
// TptbmThreadController object
public static void main(String arg[])
     Connection conn = null;
     java.sql.Timestamp tsBefore = null;
     java.sql.Timestamp tsAfter = null;
     // Load the JDBC driver
     try {
          Class.forName("com.timesten.jdbc.TimesTenDriver");
          Class.forName("com.timesten.jdbc.TimesTenClientDriver");
     } catch (java.lang.ClassNotFoundException e) {
     System.err.println(e.getMessage());
     // get current date/time with existing timezone
     tsBefore = new java.sql.Timestamp(System.currentTimeMillis());
     // set the timezone to PST
     TimeZone.setDefault(TimeZone.getTimeZone("PST"));
     // get current date/time with Timeone set
     tsAfter = new java.sql.Timestamp(System.currentTimeMillis());
     // Connect here to prevent disconnect/unload by populate
     try {
     conn = DriverManager.getConnection(CJTest.url,
                    CJTest.username, CJTest.password);
System.out.println();
System.out.println("Connected to database");
     prepInsStmt = conn.prepareStatement(CJTest.insertStmt);
          prepInsStmt.setTimestamp(1, tsBefore);
          prepInsStmt.setTimestamp(2, tsAfter);
          prepInsStmt.setString(3, "Test row");
          prepInsStmt.execute();
System.out.println();
System.out.println("Row inserted");
          prepInsStmt.close();
          conn.close();
System.out.println();
System.out.println("Disconnected");
     } catch ( SQLException e ) {
     printSQLException(e);
public static void printSQLException ( SQLException ex )
     for ( ; ex != null; ex = ex.getNextException() )
     System.out.println(ex.getMessage());
     System.out.println("Vendor Error Code: " + ex.getErrorCode());
     System.out.println("SQL State: " + ex.getSQLState());
     ex.printStackTrace();
When run on a machine where the system clock and timezone are set for GMT the resulting row that gets inserted, as displayed via ttIsql, is:
< 2012-02-01 01:06:23.929000, 2012-02-01 01:06:23.929000, 2012-02-01 09:06:24.000000, 2012-02-01 09:06:24.000000, Test row >
Which is fine and as expected. What is different about your code? I think I must be missing something in understanding this issue.
Chris