Inconsistent date/time formats in search filters and displays across grids and project overview

[Shraddha0903]

What are you missing?

• A clear standard for date+time display across grids and cards
• A timezone-aware search behavior that works with user local time
• A format for free-text date search until date/time pickers are implemented

Why do you need a solution?

• Each component displays date/time suitable to the use case
• To have consistent date/time format for all search filters across the app, so it doesn't increase the user's cognitive load
• UTC-based search is unintuitive and error-prone
• Users assume search is broken when results don’t match what they see

Ideas

Date & time display

• Grids (data-heavy views):

  • Use ISO format: YYYY-MM-DD
  • Show time (YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm) only when it helps with ordering large datasets (e.g. Measurements)

• Cards / project overview:

  • Use human-readable dates: 9 Apr 2025 17:49
  • Faster to scan, not meant for sorting

Timezone handling

• Store and query timestamps in UTC
• Display and search using user local time
• Users should never search in UTC

Search (temporary solution)

• Allow free-text search only in ISO format:
  • YYYY-MM-DD
  • YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm
• Interpret input as local time, convert to UTC before querying

Search (ideal solution)

• Replace free-text date search with date/time pickers
• Eliminates syntax and timezone errors

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct