Appendix: Updating Time Zone Definitions

From time to time, legislative changes can impact the definitions of time zones, such as whether a time zone observes daylight saving time and the start or end date for daylight saving time observance. The PeopleSoft system provides updated time zone definitions in the next release following such a legislative change, and new customers as of that release receive the updated time zone data. However, existing customers upgrading to that new release do not receive the benefit of updated time zone data because customer time zone data is not changed during upgrade. In these cases, you can manually modify your time zone definitions to comply with changing rules.

This appendix describes the process to update time zone definitions by using the U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005 as an example.

Understanding the U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005

As a specific example, the U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005 changed time zone definitions in the U.S. and Canada. PeopleSoft-delivered data in the current PeopleTools release reflects these changes. Depending on your status as a new or existing customer, you might be required to manually update your time zone data:

• If you are a new PeopleTools customer, you have received time zone data that complies with the Energy Policy Act of 2005. You do not have to manually update your time zone definitions.

• If you are an existing PeopleTools customer upgrading to the current release and you already manually updated your time zone definitions to comply with the Energy Policy Act of 2005, your updated time zone data will not be changed during upgrade. You do not have to manually update your time zone definitions again.

• If you are an existing PeopleTools customer upgrading to the current release and you have not updated your time zone definitions to comply with the Energy Policy Act of 2005, your noncompliant time zone data will not be changed during upgrade. You will have to manually update your time zone definitions to comply with the Energy Policy Act of 2005. See the remaining subsections in this section.

As a result of the U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005, daylight saving time starts earlier and ends later beginning in 2007. In the U.S. and Canada, daylight saving time now starts the second Sunday in March and ends the first Sunday in November.

To comply with this change, you need to add two new daylight saving time IDs (DST IDs), set your affected time zones to use the new DST IDs, and regenerate your offset data. Depending on your business needs, you may also want to define new time zones and associate them with existing DST IDs.

Separately, you should apply operating system patches according to your vendor’s directions so that file system time stamps will also be in compliance.

Adding New DST IDs

To add two new DST IDs:

1. Select PeopleTools, Utilities, International, Time Zones, DST IDs.

2. Click the Add button and add the following information:

   Field	Value
   DST ID	22ndSunMar
   Absolute	cleared
   Month	Mar
   Day	2
   Day of Week	Sunday
   Hour	2
   Minute	0
   Description	Second Sunday in March, 2:00am

3. Click the Add button again and add the following information:

   Field	Value
   DST ID	2FirstSunNov
   Absolute	cleared
   Month	Nov
   Day	1
   Day of Week	Sunday
   Hour	2
   Minute	0
   Description	First Sunday in Nov, 2:00am

4. Click Save to save your changes.

Update Affected Time Zones

To update affected time zones:

1. Select PeopleTools, Utilities, International, Time Zones, Time Zone IDs. Select the Daylight Saving Data tab.

2. Choose the DST start and end IDs for the affected time zones.

   In the U.S. and Canada, the affected time zones that PeopleTools delivers are the following:

   • AKST Alaska Time (U.S.)

   • AST Atlantic Time (Canada)

   • CST Central Time (U.S.)

   • EST Eastern Time (U.S.)

   • MST Mountain Time (U.S.)

   • NST Newfoundland Time (Canada)

   • PST Pacific Time (U.S.)

Generate New Query Offsets

To generate new query offsets:

1. On the Time Zone IDs page, click the Generate Query Offsets button.

2. Enter start and end dates for the time range to generate, for instance, 1/1/2009 to 1/1/2011, and click OK.

   This updates the time zone offset table (PSTZOFFSET) to reflect the current time zone and DST definitions. This data can be re-generated as needed.

   See the additional time zone documentation available on My Oracle Support.

Define New Time Zones

You may want to define new time zones. For instance, Canada has decided to follow the U.S. standard, while Mexico has decided to stay with the older definition. This means that for several weeks each year, PST in Los Angeles will be different from PST in Tijuana.

You can define a new time zone, such as PSTM (for PST Mexico) with the older DST ID, to distinguish it from the PST (for PST U.S. and Canada) with the new DST ID.

See Setting and Maintaining Time Zones.

After defining your new time zones, run Generate Query Offsets again so that the offsets include the new time zones.