November 1, 2006

Today in History:

November 1, 1952: United States Test First Hydrogen Bomb

The United States detonates the world's first thermonuclear weapon, the hydrogen bomb, on Eniwetok atoll in the Pacific. The test gave the United States a short-lived advantage in the nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union.

Read more at HistoryChannel.com...

FEATURE STORY:
Global Business Solutions Across Time Zones

As business has grown increasingly more “global”, there has also been a growth in the need for business applications to support global usage, across multiple time zones.  And business applications on SharePoint are no exception.

It is not uncommon for your SharePoint users to be spread across the country or around the world.  After all, one of the benefits of SharePoint is the ability to centralize information but make it available from anywhere that a user has a browser.  As a result, a common question for many organizations seeking to develop global business applications on SharePoint concerns time zone settings for sites.

SharePoint is flexible and makes it easy to set a site to a specific time zone.  In order to alter the time zone for a site, a change must be made within the site's Regional Settings section. 

To set the time zone for a site, perform the following steps:

1. Access the site and enter into the site's settings by clicking on the Site Settings link in the top navigation bar.
2. Find the "Administration" section.
3. Click on the Go to Site Administration link.
4. In the "Site Administration" page, look for the "Management and Statistics" section.
5. Click on the Change regional settings link.
6. In the "Time Zone" section, change the time zone.
7. Click the OK button to apply the changes.

This sets the time zone for the current site, but it does not affect the time zones setting for the server or any of its sub-sites.  New sub-sites that are created underneath the site with a changed time zone may or may not use the same value.  

So How Does SharePoint Determine the Time Zone Setting for a Site When It’s Built?
When a site is built using standard SharePoint site templates, the time zone that the site utilizes is based upon its parent site, not the SharePoint server settings.  The exceptions to this are if the site were the top-layer of a SharePoint Portal Server Site Collection or if the top site is in a Windows SharePoint Services installation.  If the site is the top of a Site Collection, SharePoint uses the time zone setting for the Virtual Server.  If the Virtual Server's time zone is not set, the site will be built using the Time Zone setting for the physical server.  In the end, when a site is built using a standard SharePoint site template, the Time Zone is first determined by looking at the Parent site, then at the Virtual Server Time Zone setting, and, if these don't apply, finally at the physical server's Time Zone.

These behaviors do not apply, though, if you have saved a site as a Site Template and are using the Site Templates for new sites. When a creating a template for a site, SharePoint stores the Time Zone setting from the original site into the Site Template.  Sites built using this Site Template will use the time zone from the original site, instead of reading the time zone of the parent site.  Does all this sound overwhelming?  Fortunately, there is a faster, easier and more maintainable way to support global business applications, across multiple time zones, using SharePoint.

CorasWorks Site Templates Enable Quick and Easy Global Time Zone Management
CorasWorks removed the Time Zone setting from its Site Templates and Solutions.  Sites that are built using CorasWorks Site Templates behave in the same manner as the original SharePoint site templates do; the time zone that the site uses is based upon its parent site.  

It is a relatively straightforward process to change the time zone for a site and with the changes made to the CorasWorks Site Templates, it is less likely that you'll need to do so.  To learn more on how CorasWorks enables easier global application development on SharePoint, visit their showroom:  http://solutions.corasworks.net/showroom/default.aspx

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