Date field is missing the time section (hh:mm:ss) in CDS Get Record action

[Nithin_Vanam]

Hello,

I have encountered a strange problem with the CDS Get record action. My understanding is that a date field in Dynamics stores the date in UTC timezone and displays the date back to user based on user's timezone. If i use the Level Up Chrome Extension to view all the fields of a record in Dynamics 365, i can see the date field stored as a complete timestamp in UTC.

Data in Dynamics Form:

Data using Chrome Extension:

However when i retrieve the same record in a flow using the CDS Get record action, the same field displays only the date of the UTC timezone when it had to display the complete timestamp.

Data output of CDS Get_Record action:

Data output of CDS Get Record action with some fields spitting out the complete timestamp:

Any suggestions how i can retrieve the complete time stamp for the date fields? Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Nithin

[Jcook]

Hello,

Try and use the Date time action - Convert time zone.

—Josh
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[Nithin_Vanam]

Hi @Jcook ,

The issue is, when a record in CRM is saved with a date 12/03/2020, in CDS it is stored as 11/03/2020 14:00:00 UTC (Based on my local timezone - AU). Now if i access that field in a flow, i only get 11/03/2020 without the time. Even if i use Convert Time Zone action ( i have tried this), it takes the base time as 11/03/2020 00:00:00 and then converts it to my local timezone which is UTC + 10. So the converted time is still 11/03/2020 10:00:00 instead of 12/03/2020 00:00:00. 

Unless i get the right timestamp there is no use in converting the timezone. I will have to account for the missing timestamp in my logic. Wanted a confirmation if this is the only way to tackle this or if i messing something up. Thanks.

Regards,

Nithin

[abm · Accepted solution]

Hi @Nithin_Vanam 

I have tested this and these are my findings.

First I create two date columns Start Date (Date Only Format) and End Date (Date Time Format)

I have entered some data (dd/MM/yyyy) against these columns.

Start Date: 11-03-2020

End Date:  18-03-2020 17:00:00

Flow CDS Get Items returned the date values as follows:

Start Date 

2020-03-11 

End Date

2020-03-18T17:00:00Z

Which is expected.

I did checked the results with Level Up extension and it did showed the below result

Start Date

2020-03-11T00:00:00Z

End Date

2020-03-18T17:00:00Z

Believe the D365 UI hiding the formats because we set the Start Date data type as Date only. 

So far so good and all working as expected.

Next I changed the End Date column type to Date only.

Here are my results from CDS

Start Date 

2020-03-11 

End Date

2020-03-18

Level Up here are the result

Start Date

2020-03-11T00:00:00Z

End Date

2020-03-18T17:00:00Z

So the difference here is the old data still in database but masked out by Dynamics UI because we changed the End Date to Date only format but Level Up still shows all datetime.

Looks like your schema might have changed and displaying only Date format in D365 UI.

If you want the datetime then you may need to change the CRM field schema to DateTime so that CDS Get Items can get the data in datetime format. 

Conclusion:

D365 UI is doing the masking of DateTime / Date only format

Also when it stores the date in Database it stores the Date only format time as 00:00:00z

Level Up not doing any masking it is showing the DateTime exactly as it is.

Make sure your schema DateTime format is changed or not? You may be looking the historical data here.

To prove it add a new record and test.

Hope it make sense.

Thanks

[Nithin_Vanam]

Hi @abm ,

Let me give this a go. Will post back my results. 

Just to confirm again, you are suggesting me to change the date field to date and time and then check with the CDS action? Thanks.

Regards,

Nithin

[abm]

Hi @Nithin_Vanam 

Yes that's correct.

Thanks