Strange time for EndTime ButterflyCount-eBMS website

[CrisSevilleja]

One user (indicia ID 295127) reported me the End Time of the 15min counts was not registered good for some of his surveys. He corrected those surveys on the website, so he cannot show a screenshot when that happened. He thought the End time was wrong showing the submission time instead of the real End time (when the 15min are over). Something I don't think this is happening.

Trying to check for this strange behaviour, I checked my account and others and everything was fine. However, in the account of @chrisvanswaay , I found in his last 15min submitted a strange End Time at 18:57h when the submission time was the same day at 17:58 (one hour earlier).

the same happened to Irma (user indicia ID 227060) for another 15min count, with one hour later the End Time.

It looks like the app registered the End Time one hour later after the submission. However, I don't know if, in that case, the End time was not registered properly, or it is another issue. Anyway, I am not sure if it is a problem with the ButterflyCount app or the website.

@kazlauskis I thought of a possibility to detect any problem registering the Start and End time to show those times in the app. I mean, when a survey has been submitted you can only see the date but not the time it was registered. Just a suggestion to discuss, what do you think?

Let's see if we find out what is going on.

[JimBacon]

I know from previous discussion that the start and end times are local to the recorder. The submitted time is local to the warehouse server which is UK time. If a record is made in Western Europe and submitted immediately then the one hour time difference is expected.

What I don't understand is how Irma can start a 15-minute count at 15:14 and finish at 18:36.

[chrisvanswaay]

Mine is also strange, as it was just last weekend. I made a 15 minute count, and what I see on the map is also more or less right, that is it starts and ends at the place where I parked my bike, and it took me 15 minutes. The gps stopped recording there (the line ends), but apparently the count end time was only when I uploaded the count to the server in the evening. Maybe I forgot something, but then still this is strange behaviour.

[Irmawyn]

Really????

That must have been a 15min count when I was interrupted and forgotten to press the pauze button. Then in the evening I found it back when uploading the other ones. Could it have happened like that?

Cheers, Irma

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Van: JimBacon @.> Verzonden: donderdag 21 september 2023 16:32 Aan: BiologicalRecordsCentre/ABLE @.> CC: Subscribed @.***> Onderwerp: Re: [BiologicalRecordsCentre/ABLE] Strange time for EndTime ButterflyCount-eBMS website (Issue #628)

I know from previous discussionhttps://github.com/BiologicalRecordsCentre/ABLE/issues/606 that the start and end times are local to the recorder. The submitted time is local to the warehouse server which is UK time. If a record is made in Western Europe and submitted immediately then the one hour time difference is expected.

What I don't understand is how Irma can start a 15-minute count at 15:14 and finish at 18:36.

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[kazlauskis]

I know from https://github.com/BiologicalRecordsCentre/ABLE/issues/606 that the start and end times are local to the recorder. The submitted time is local to the warehouse server which is UK time. If a record is made in Western Europe and submitted immediately then the one hour time difference is expected.

Yep, the start and end times are based on the user's local time, while the upload time is the server's in the UK time. Unless the user is in the UK, because of the time zone differences, this might not match.

What I don't understand is how Irma can start a 15-minute count at 15:14 and finish at 18:36.

The end time is set when the user presses the Finish button, not when the 15 minutes run out, so endTime minus startTime can be more than 15 minutes. For example, a) the user starts a survey and enters a few species but only presses the Finish button much later after the 15 minutes run out, or b) the user starts a survey, pauses the timer to check the ID guide, re-starts the timer and finishes the survey - the paused time makes the total time more than the 15mins.

[CrisSevilleja]

Thanks for the discussion and clarification. I get your point @kazlauskis why the total time can be more than 15min because we allow to pause the time. However, I think the End Time should be when the 15minutes run out (still can be more than 15min if pauses are involved). With that we will avoid hours of differences if an user forgets to click the Finish button. I think that was the issue with Chris and Irma, they didn't click the Finish button and then the End Time was one hour later of the upload, due to the difference with UK.

And related to that, I don't think it is a good idea the upload time is the server's in the UK time. We are including more and more countries like Japan, South Africa and more will come, so this limitation to UK will generate confusion. Could we add the Upload time as local time as Start\End time?

@DavidRoy could you give us your opinion?

[DavidRoy]

@CrisSevilleja I agree that the End time should be set when the 15m timer runs out

The upload time should stay as UK time as that is needed for other database processes. This is an internal database field so should not concern recorders or co-ordinators.

[kazlauskis]

Note that the endTime - startTime can also be less than 15 minutes. Users can finish and upload surveys before the 15mins run out.

I can calculate the end time as startTime + 15mins + pausedTime, OR when the user presses the Finish button if the 15 minutes haven't passed yet. Would that be OK?

[DavidRoy]

yes, that sounds a sensible approach to me. @CrisSevilleja - do you agree?

[CrisSevilleja]

yes I agree. Then we keep the submission time for UK but the End time when the 15minutes finish. Thanks!

[CrisSevilleja]

We should somehow mention this UK time for submission time in the text or in the variable heading

[DavidRoy]

Or remove it from this explore view?

[CrisSevilleja]

I think it is useful to see it and it is not a default variable anyway. I will mention it in the text, explaining the time is from the UK due to the database.