Preface: I found a few different requests that relate to this, but none are specifically talking about time, so I'd like to bring it up separately. We use a service called WordFly to send our receipt and reminder emails (well, we're trying to!) WordFly can use Altru Ad-hoc Queries to pull in email lists, data, etc.
Problem: Altru uses miliary time in the backend. Not 17:00, but 1700. Because of the lack of colon, it's not readable as UTC. So we can go into a program like Excel and apply a time format to 1700 and Excel will know we want 5:00 p.m. and Altru can display the time as 5:00 p.m. in the preview of the query. But when the query is read as plain text, 1700 cannot be recognized as time.
Idea: Altru already has some functionality around setting the format options of an export process. I'd just like to be able to do this with an Ad-hoc query.
Reference: This is what our WordFly Rep said about the issue: "Keep in mind that your database is responsible for providing all data in a standardized format to process dates and times. Most modern database systems (including the others we integrate with) are capable of outputting time values in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), which is the industry standard for cross-platform consistency. Our application is not a database, so we do not transform data. We simply request and display the information provided by the system that manages all subscriber-related data — in this case, your database. This is why the update needs to be requested directly from Altru, as they manage the data and handle the import process into WordFly."
