CSDateTime Readme
CoolServlets.com
Version 1.0
March 26, 1999

CSDateTime is a Java Servlet that prints out the current date and/or time in a variety of formats. The servlet is useful for embedding that information in a web page using server-side includes.

Features

Installation

This program requires a web server that has servlet support. Such web servers include Java Web Server by Sun, Netscape Enterprise Server, and versions of Apache. If you are not sure whether your web server has servlet support, contact your System Administrator. Various external servlet engines are also available. Of those, the servlet has been specifically tested with JRun. More information about servlet environments is at http://www.coolservlets.com.

Copying The Servlet

You need to copy CSDateTime.class into the servlet directory on your web server. This is often servlets/. You may need to restart your servlet engine depending on your environment. After that, the servlet should be fully functional.

Usage

Look in the demo directory of this distribution for sample uses of the servlet.

The normal use of this servlet is with Server-Side Includes (SSI). For a full description of SSI and its use with Servlets, consult your servlet engine or web server documentation.

Calling CSDateTime servlet with no parameters will result in text output like the following:

March 21,1999
The matching SSI command would be:
<SERVLET CODE="CSDateTime"> </SERVLET>
To print other formats for the date and time, you must provide a formparameterter to the servlet. Such an SSI command might look like the following:
<SERVLET CODE=CSDateTime>
<PARAM name="format" value="MMM - yy - HHHH">
</SERVLET>
The servlet interprets the format command and then builds the date and time output based on the tokens it finds. A summary of these tokens and their meanings is in a table below.

Pattern Letter Meaning Examples
Pattern -- Result
d Day in month (N) d -- 7
dd -- 07
D Day in year (N) D -- 89
F Day of week in month (N) F -- 2
E Day in week (T) E -- Tues
EEE -- Tues
EEEE -- Tuesday
w Week in year (N) w -- 15
W Week in month (N) W -- 2
M Month in year (T or N) MM -- 09
MMM -- Jul
MMMM -- July
y Year (N) yy -- 97
yyyy -- 1997
G Era designator (T) G -- AD
K Hour in AM/PM [0-11] (N) K -- 0
h Hour in AM/PM [1-12] (N) h -- 12
k Hour in day [1-24] (N) k -- 24
H Hour in day [0-23] (N) H -- 0
m Minute in hour (N) m -- 45
s Second in minute (N) s -- 14
S Millisecond (N) S -- 583
a AM/PM Marker (T) a -- PM
z Time zone (T) z -- CST
zzzz -- Central Standard Time

You can also specify a time zone to use for the servlet via a timeZone parameter (the servlet will default to the system time zone). A SSI command to display the time using Pacific Standard Time would be:
<SERVLET CODE=CSDateTime>
<PARAM name="timeZone" value="PST">
</SERVLET>
A summary of valid time zones is below (you should supply the servlet with the ID):

ID Name Offset
MIT Midway Islands Time -11
HST Hawaii Standard Time -10
AST Alaska Standard Time -9
PST Pacific Standard Time -8
PNT Phoenix Standard Time -7
MST Mountain Standard Time -7
CST Central Standard Time -6
EST Eastern Standard Time -5
IET Indiana Eastern Standard Time -5
PRT -4
CNT Canada Newfoundland Time -3.5
AGT Argentina Standard Time -3
BET Brazil Eastern Time -3
CAT Central African Time -1
GMT Greenwich Mean Time 0
ECT European Central Time 1
EET Eastern European Time 1
ART (Arabic) Egypt Standard Time 2
EAT Eastern African Time 3
MET Middle East Time 3.5
NET Near East Time 4
PLT Pakistan Lahore Time 5
IST India Standard Time 5.5
BST Bangladesh Standard Time 6
VST Vietnam Standard Time 7
CTT China Standard Time 8
JST Japan Standard Time 9
ACT Australia Central Time 9.5
AET Australia Eastern Time 10
SST Solomon Standard Time 11
NST New Zealand Standard Time 12

You can also check out the demo directory in this distribution for more SSI examples.

Problems?

We have made every effort to make this servlet easy to install and as robust as possible. If you are having problems making it work, first go back over the installation instructions and make sure you followed them exactly. If that does not fix the problem, verify that servlets are working correctly on your web server. Additional help can be found on http://www.coolservlets.com where FAQ's or discussion forums may exist for this servlet.

Bugs in the servlet can be reported to bugs@coolservlets.com. You may also send descriptions of any other problems you are having with the servlet to that address, but we canguaranteentee a reply due to our busy schedules.

If you require technical support, please see below for information about how to purchase it.

Source

The full source of the servlet be found in the src folder in this distribution. If you would like compile it, you'll need the Servlet SDK which is available on the Java website: http://java.sun.com .

Technical Support

Individuals or companies that would like technical support for this servlet can buy unlimited email tech support for $50. A support contract can also be purchased for $150 which provides unlimited email tech support for all CoolServlets.com servlets. Please see http://www.coolservlets.com/support for further details.

Purchasing technical support guarantees a quick resolution to any problems you have with CoolServlets.com servlets. It is also a great way to aid the continued development of further high quality, free, open-source servlets.

License

This servlet is distributed under the GNU Public License. This means that the program is completely free (see below for legalese).

However, there are a few voluntary things that we would really appreciate: provide links back to CoolServlets.com instead of redistributing the code (this wguaranteentee that people will always be able to get the latest version), and send us bug reports or feature requests. Also, we encourage you to put the CoolServlets.com button somewhere on your site so that other people can find out about our free servlets. Please spread the word about CoolServlets.com!

     Copyright (C) 1999  Matt Tucker and Bill Lynch
 
     This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
     it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
     the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
     (at your option) any later version.
 
     This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
     but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
     MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
     GNU General Public License for more details.
 
     You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
     along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
     Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA