Adaxes 2021.1 email date format

Question

Hi,

Following an update from Adaxes 2016 to 2021.1 we noticed that the date format on the email notifications is no longer English UK, but English US, i.e. MMDDYYYY.

Is there a way to change this formatting globally as opposed to having to go through every scheduled task/business rule that sends a notification and changing the variable?

Thanks, Gary

Answer 1

Hello Gary,

Date/time value references specified in automation actions (e.g. in business rules) resolve according to the regional Windows settings on the computer where Adaxes service is installed. This behaviour is by design in Adaxes 2021.1. To achieve the desired behaviour, you can change the settings to English UK.

Comments

Hi,

The server is set to English UK, in every respect.

I did notice that it was set to English US for "new users& welcome screen" which I've changed and restarted the server.

however the date format is still English US.

IS there something I may be missing?

Thanks Gary

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Hello Gary,

If you mean the email notifications related to approval requests, the format is taken from Windows settings specified during the OS installation. That is something you can only change by reinstalling Windows with the correct language which corresponds to the required date format.

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Hi,

We have a scheduled task that runs on a Monday (in the example I have) that if the account expires within the next 7 days it sends an email to our IT Helpdesk.

The date format is US the property is %accountexpiry% read from Active Directory.

I've managed to find another notification (I'm not sent them all) for a new starter which reads an Adaxes custom date field "Start Date" which is in English UK format

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Hello Gary,

Do you have multiple instances of Adaxes service sharing common configuration? If you do, make sure that all the computers where Adaxes services run have the same regional settings. For information on how to view the services, see https://www.adaxes.com/help/MultiServerEnvironment.

Make sure that value references in the notification templates do not have a certain format specified (e.g. %accountExpires:format[dddd/MMMM/yyyy HH:mm:ss],,00:00%). They should just be value references for the corresponding properties (e.g. %accountExpires%).

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Hi, we only have one instance of Adaxes installed.

The regional settings were set to English US, this morning I changed everything to English UK, rebooted the server and retried the scheuduled task. The date format for an AD field still came through as English US.

The field in the email has this format:

Hi, The below user should be leaving in the next 7 days, please ensure there os already be a request logged. If not, please log a leaver SR

Username: %username% Name: %firstname% %lastname% Account expiration: %accountExpires% Equipment return method: %adm-CustomAttributeText10% Thank you

Service Desk

Is there perhaps a flag somewhere I need to set?

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Hello Gary,

Thank you for the provided details. Unfortunately, your screenshots do not provide information about date/formats. You can check it on the computer where Adaxes service runs in Control Panel/Region. Still the easiest way to make all the date/time value references resolve into the very same format is specifying it explicitly.

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Hi, the first screenshot has the regional information and date format shown as English UK

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Hello Gary,

Yes, you are right. Sorry for missing that. In case of scheduled tasks, date/time value reference resolve according to the format of the default culture specified during Windows installation. It is something you can only change by re-installing Windows. Regional settings do not influence the behaviour. In your case, the culture looks to be en-US and that is why you get the corresponding format in the emails.

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Hi, there is no English UK installation for Microsoft server OS.

You have always had to install the language pack after the OS is installed.

It's also weird that Adaxes custom fields are English UK, but AD fields (reported via Adaxes) come out as English US

Thanks, Gary

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Hello Gary,

Dates formats work differently based on where the date is displayed. For example in the Web interface it depends on the browser settings: https://www.adaxes.com/questions/10438/how-are-web-interface-language-and-date-format-selected.

As for the value references in scheduled tasks, it looks like the only way for you to have the required format is to specify it explicitly. Unfortunately, there is no other possibility if Windows cannot be installed with the corresponding language.

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Thanks for the response, but that still doesn't make any sense to me, and apologies for the delay in responding.

There has never been an English UK server OS out of the box you have always had to install the language pack after the install.

This was not an issue on our previous version Adaxes 2016, the Adaxes field dates are in UK format, it's only when Adaxes reads Active directory date formats to put into an email does it randomly change to English US formatting.

Please see attached example, we have a custom Adaxes date field that reads in English UK format, so the inconsistency between it?

EDIT: I've just rembered it's Scheduled Tasks having the issue, not business rules. The formatting is the same though. Would this indicate it's somehow

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Hello Gary,

How exactly is the email configured in the first scheduled task? Please, provide us with a screenshot.

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Hi, you can see an example in my post above

Thanks, Gary

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Hello Gary,

We saw both examples. However, you provided a screenshot for the configuration only for the one that works correctly. What about the first example (the one with Start Date)? How exactly is that email delivery configured? If you cannot post the screenshot here, you can send it to use at support@adaxes.com.

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Hi I didn't, I edited the post to say that scheduled tasks are coming through in the incorrect date format and then uploaded screenshots of the examples.

Not sure you mean how email delivery is configured, other than it's configured to use our onprem DNS to connect to our Exchange servers of SMTP.domainname port 25

Thanks, Gary

EDIT: To add a screenshot. The business rules are working with a format of the email like this, there is no visible difference (that I can see) to the ones in Scheduled tasks that aren't working.

Previous screengrabs showing the US date formatting are from Scheduled task output

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Hello Gary,

Thank you for the provided details. As we understand, you have two scheduled tasks both using the Send email notification action and the %adm-CustomAttributeDate1% value reference. At the same time when delivering the emails for the very same user account the date formats are different. Is that correct?

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Hi,

No, all scheduled task date formatting in email is in EN-US i.e. MM/DD/YYYYY.

From what I can evidence all business rule notification email is in EN-GB DD/MM/YYYY. To add to this the business rule notifications I can evidence use Adaxes custom attribute date fields not AD fields, such as the example above of %adm-customattributedate1%

Thanks, Gary

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Hello Gary,

Thank you for the clarification. This bahaviour is expected as date/time value references work differently in scheduled tasks and business rules. Scheduled tasks take the format according to the language Windows was installed with. As we mentioned previously, the only way to have the required format is to specify it for the value references explicitly in scheduled tasks.

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Hi,

I appreciate that is what you've said before, but previously the response was to reinstall the Windows OS in English UK which can't be done as that is not an option.

So your advice is that for every single task that generates an email I will need to manually go in and set the attributes to format in DD/MM/YYYY?

Thank you Gary

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Hello Gary,

Yes, that is correct.

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Thanks, I don't see how this benefits anyone that uses your system that isn't US date format natively (which is around 5 countries). Where the NON-US date format is typical formatting, i.e. DD/MM/YYYY

Is there a features request option where I can submit the ability to be able to select the global formatting of date formats

Thanks, Gary

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Hello Gary,

It is not about en-US, but about the culture selected during Windows installation. We already forwarded the request to the corresponding department for consideration.

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Thanks, do you think reinstalling Adaxes will resolve the date issue? As previously stated there is no English UK date format OS install, it's always an add-in after the install.

I've also just noticed that this also affects scheduled reports. There is no option (that I can find) that I can amend to change the output, is there an option?

Thanks, Gary