Change the Date Format

• Article Type: General
• Product: Aleph
• Product Version: 20

Desired Outcome Goal:
Change the date format.

Procedure:
There are multiple variables in Aleph controlling date format.
1. aleph_date_time (defined on the server)
2. date_style_s (defined on the server)
3. date_style_f (defined on the server)
4. date_format (defined on the client)

Steps:

1. Set the central definition on the server (aleph_start file > aleph_date_time variable). The aleph_date_time sets the date style globally. Note that aleph_date_time ONLY controls which set of date_style variables described in step 2 will be read by the system.
Options:
* 1 = U.S.
* 2 = European (or rest of world)
For example, 19 January 2012 can be 19/01/2012 in European format or 01/19/2012 in U.S. format.

2. Fine-tune date display on the server (aleph_start file). Full option details are provided below in the Additional Information section.
* date_style_s variable = dates on screens which are only for display.
* date_style_f variable = dates in editable forms

3. If the GUI and the Web OPAC date styles need to be different, these variables should copied to www_server.conf (Web OPAC) and/or pc_server_defaults (GUI). The settings in those files override the default values defined in aleph_start (step 2).

4. If the GUI date style needs to be different on specific computers, configure alephcom.ini on the PC. This overrides the date_style_f server-side settings, but NOT date_style_s!
Perhaps an American staff member wants a different date format on the workstation than an English staff member.
Note that this setting offers date separator options that are not available in the server variables. For example, dot (.) is an option here.
[Date_Format]
DateSequence=dmy
; s or S is space in separator
HourSeparator=:
DateSeparator=.