Timezone for Bulk export API of activity | Community
Skip to main content
Saptarshi_Konar
Saptarshi_Konar
Level 2
November 6, 2019
Question

Timezone for Bulk export API of activity

  • November 6, 2019
  • 1 reply
  • 3896 views

I am confused regarding the timezone, when a bulk export API for activity is called.

Example-

API- /bulk/v1/activities/export/create.json

JSON - {
     "format": "CSV",
   "filter": {
            "createdAt": {
                  "startAt": "2018-10-16T00:00:00Z",
                  "endAt": "2018-10-16T23:59:59Z"
               }
         }
}

I have tested with Date Range

  •                   "startAt": "2018-10-15T00:00:00Z",
                      "endAt": "2018-10-16T23:59:59Z"
  •                     "startAt": "2018-10-17T00:00:00Z",
                      "endAt": "2018-10-17T23:59:59Z"

API - /bulk/v1/activities/export/{exportId}/file.json

Result- No data found for all this time range

But when the input is -

                  "startAt": "2018-10-16T00:00:00Z",
                  "endAt": "2018-10-17T23:59:59Z"

Result- 13 records found 

 marketoGUID

leadId

activityDate

1913

1234

2018-10-16T16:26:06Z

1916

1234

2018-10-16T16:26:13Z

1921

1234

2018-10-16T16:31:22Z

1923

1234

2018-10-16T16:31:52Z

1929

134

2018-10-16T16:32:03Z

1947

118

2018-10-16T17:36:00Z

1950

113

2018-10-16T17:36:10Z

1969

113

2018-10-16T18:34:35Z

1972

213

2018-10-16T18:34:41Z

2003

987

2018-10-16T21:07:29Z

2006

987

2018-10-16T21:07:41Z

2012

1171

2018-10-16T21:12:10Z

2014

1171

2018-10-16T21:12:22Z

So which time zone is considered at the time of request and what is the timezone of the activityDate in the CSV output?

This post is no longer active and is closed to new replies. Need help? Start a new post to ask your question.

1 reply

SanfordWhiteman
SanfordWhiteman
Level 10
November 6, 2019

Datetimes are stored in UTC (that's the internal definition of the type, it's a +/- offset from epoch UTC as it would be in every language I know of).  You don't store, or rather can't store, datetimes in a database in local time because the time will be interpreted in UTC anyway. (You can try to unmangle it on the way out, but it's hopeless proposition.)

In your case I don't see that this pertains to timezones, anyway, since you're using the same timezone all around.

It seems you're saying date range A does not return results, but date range B which is a subset of date range A does return results. This is definitely unexpected, again regardless of timezone. You absolutely positive you applied the same activity filters to the same set and to the subset?

    Saptarshi_Konar
    Saptarshi_KonarAuthor
    Level 2
    November 7, 2019

    @Sanford Whiteman Actually it is not a subset.

    I want the data as per EST( considering the Daylight Saving ).

    So I tried the following request-

    API- /bulk/v1/activities/export/create.json

    JSON - {
         "format": "CSV",
       "filter": {
                "createdAt": {
                      "startAt": "2018-10-16T00:00:00Z America/New_York",
                      "endAt": "2018-10-16T23:59:59Z America/New_York"
                   }
             }
    }

    But in the output CSV from the api  "/bulk/v1/activities/export/{requestId}/file.json", I am not getting any entries for the timeline.

    But for the

                      "startAt": "2018-10-16T00:00:00Z",
                      "endAt": "2018-10-17T23:59:59Z"

                        or

                      "startAt": "2018-10-16T00:00:00Z America/New_York",
                      "endAt": "2018-10-17T23:59:59Z America/New_York"

    which is a 2 days interval I am getting below entries which all are dated between "2018-10-16T00:00:00"

    to 2018-10-16T22:00:00

     marketoGUID

    leadId

    activityDate

    2913

    169

    2018-10-16T16:26:06Z

    2916

    169

    2018-10-16T16:26:13Z

    2921

    169

    2018-10-16T16:31:22Z

    2923

    169

    2018-10-16T16:31:52Z

    2929

    169

    2018-10-16T16:32:03Z

    2947

    13

    2018-10-16T17:36:00Z

    2950

    13

    2018-10-16T17:36:10Z

    2969

    13

    2018-10-16T18:34:35Z

    2972

    13

    2018-10-16T18:34:41Z

    3003

    87

    2018-10-16T21:07:29Z

    3006

    87

    2018-10-16T21:07:41Z

    3012

    171

    2018-10-16T21:12:10Z

    3014

    171

    2018-10-16T21:12:22Z

    • Is the activityDate in CSV always show the date time  in UTC?
    • what should be the Ideal input for the request if I want to fetch data in EST timezone for the above example?
    • Is marketo instance timezone is related to the API timezone?
    SanfordWhiteman
    SanfordWhiteman
    Level 10
    November 7, 2019

    Your timezone formats are invalid. A timestamp can't be in UTC and in America/New_York simultaneously, no such format exists in ISO 8601 (nor does the concept make sense in reality).

    Request the time ranges in UTC (Z) only. If you need to do a translation from a given tz, do that in your client code. It doesn't go into the payload.

    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement

    Loading footer...