Datetime format different on different devices

[gavinleung]

Hi folks, 

I'm building an app to convert timezone from one to another by using a PowerApp and a Power Automate Flow. I'm using a DatePicker plus 2 dropdown to collect the date and time from the users. 

My button submits this to the Flow:

ClearCollect(Response,TimezoneConvert.Run(DatePicker1.SelectedDate + Time(Value(HourDropdown.Selected.Value), Value(MinuteDropdown.Selected.Value),0,0),
SourceTZ.Selected.'Standard Name',DestinationTZ.Selected.'Standard Name'))

It works perfectly fine on my PC. But after I published to the other users who are using PC or mobile phone, issues come. 

Power Automate can no longer process the date time from these devices, and it showed this error:

InvalidTemplate. Unable to process template language expressions for action 'Convert_time_zone' at line '0' and column '0': 'In function 'converttimezone', the value provided for date time string '15/03/2022 09:00' was not valid. The datetime string must match ISO 8601 format.'.

I believe it's the DatePicker control passes a different date time formats to the Flow. Can anyone provide me advice to fix the Date Time format from Apps to Automate? So that all devices should be sending the same format. 

Thanks,

Gavin

[gavinleung]

Anyone ? 

[v-yujincui-msft]

Hi @gavinleung ,

The date time string you are using (15/03/2022 09:00) is in the format dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm, you could try to change it to another format (MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm).

I have made a  test for your reference.

concat(first(skip(split(outputs('Compose'),'/'),1)),'/',first(split(outputs('Compose'),'/')),'/',last(skip(split(outputs('Compose'),'/'),1)))

convertTimeZone(outputs('Compose-format'),'UTC','Pacific Standard Time')

Result Screenshot:

Best Regards,

Charlie Choi

[gavinleung]

Thanks Charlie. 
But the problem is that if there is another user not using this date format (eg A uses US format, B uses UK format), then the flow will be having an error. 

Is that somewhere we can force the date format from Power Apps instead? 

[gavinleung]

This is the date time format sent from different devices:

A: March 15, 2022 8:30 PM

B: 15/03/2022 20:30

A works, but B not. Flow takes the first 2 numbers as the month, and this throws an error. 

I shouldn't hard code the manipulation on Flow as I cannot foresee what locale will be used from end users' machines. That's why I think it's more appropriate to force the format from PowerApps. 

[gavinleung]

keeping this warm. Anyone? 

[v-yujincui-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @gavinleung ,

Sorry for the late reply.

Try to use the formula like this in Power Apps:

Text(DateTimeValue(***),"mm/dd/yyyy HH:mm")

Then you could pass the value to Flow.

Best Regards,

Charlie Choi

[gavinleung]

Thanks Charlie! 

I tried a similar way as yours, it didn't work. But I just tried your method, it works!

Probably I may have missed something for my first try ... but anyway thanks! 

[Anonymous]

Hi, I am currently working on this issue. If we use the above format, i believe the record changes to Text instead of Datetime. Is it possible to keep the record in Datetime itself ?