Difference in date/timestamp fields, and GMT standardization

asked 2016-01-06 16:27:11 -0600

Hi everyone, first time poster... nice to be here!

Does anyone know intricacies of the date fields? For example my data provider has a number of fields pertaining to date, and I've pasted the array fart below. They seem to be pretty self-explanatory (L_PriceDate = the time stamp that marks when a particular property's PRICE was changed, and nothing more).

[L_ListingDate] => List Date

[L_HotSheetDate] => Hotshot Date

[L_StatusDate] => Status Date

[L_PriceDate] => Price Date

[L_InputDate] => Input Date

[L_UpdateDate] => Update Date

However I would like to know if there is a MASTER timestamp field that ALWAYS updates whenever the property listing changes in ANY way. More specifically, I am wondering if my hunch is correct that L_UpdateDate behaves this way... meaning it always updates regardless of the nature of the update. (Meaning a fresh timestamp will be saved anytime a Price changes, or the Status changes, or an Input changes, etc). For obvious reasons it would be easier to have a master timestamp field to tell your script "hey... this property changed somehow... so re-save all its data!" as opposed to checking many different fields for individual/isolated changes.

As a follow up, will all the timestamps always be in GMT? My provider is for Hawaii Real Estate, but it appears timestamps come in the form of GMT.

Thanks in advance for the advice guys! Sorry if these questions were already answered, I searched but could not find anything :(

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answered 2016-01-06 16:41:57 -0600

mdean

updated 2016-01-06 16:42:56 -0600

L_UpdateDate is what you want. Here is a list of the meanings of those fields:

L_ListingDate - the date the property was listed
L_HotSheetDate - the last hotsheet entry date for this listing
L_StatusDate - the date the status last changed
L_PriceDate - the date the price last changed
L_InputDate - the timestamp when the listing was input into the system
L_UpdateDate - the timestamp the listing was last changed

There is also another field that may be of concern, if you care about photos.

L_Last_Photo_Updt - the timestamp the listing last had any photo changes (add, modify, reorder, delete)

Note that photo changes only update L_Last_Photo_Updt, and do not affect L_UpdateDate.

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answered 2016-01-06 17:27:31 -0600

dboi

Thanks for confirming mdean, L_UpdateDate is indeed what I'm looking for... it will tell me whenever something (anything) changes data-wise, and that will trigger a general re-save of all the data for that property in my script. Easy enough!

As for the images, thanks for the head's up on the Photo field, my provider warned me about that as well. So in the end I can move forward and write my script knowing that I can anchor update logic around those two fields (L_UpdateDate and L_Last_Photo_Updt).

For anyone else reading, my data provider informed me that the timestamps are GMT regardless of where your feed of interest is located geographically.

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Difference in date/timestamp fields, and GMT standardization

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