Calculate time since data entered database depending on timezone

Question

I contacted the hosting team of my shared host at Godaddy to change the server time because I use different timezone (Cairo), but they couldn't change it on the shared hosting.

I hope you help me to modify the code I use to calculate the time since the user inserted the data to the Mysql database. I use datetime for date fields.

Here is the code:

//This is the date the code inserts to the database:
$date = new DateTime("now", new DateTimeZone('Africa/Cairo'));
$date=$date->format("Y-m-d H:i:s");
//And this is the php function that calculates the time since post published:
function humanTiming($time)
 {
 $time = time() - $time; // to get the time since that moment
 $tokens = array (
 31536000 => ' year',
 2592000 => ' month',
 604800 => ' week',
 86400 => ' day',
 3600 => ' hour',
 60 => ' minute',
 1 => ' second'
 );
 foreach ($tokens as $unit => $text) {
 if ($time < $unit) continue;
 $numberOfUnits = floor($time / $unit);
 return $numberOfUnits.' '.$text.(($numberOfUnits>1)?'':'');
 }
}

Answer 1

Instead of using your real timezone 'Africa/Cairo', you could use the timezone of the server (to match the database). Since you're looking for the time difference, it would be accurate.

• DevManX: The problem is that, I also use the date details inside the articles (eg. 1 May 2015 12:12:18), so I need both, the time since data inserted and the accurate datetime the user published his article.
• olkid: Question: what is the reference point for "accurate datetime the user published his article"? Is that according to the timezone of the publisher or to Cairo?
• DevManX: The reference is the Cairo time.