Javascript parsing json date timezone mismatch causes wrong date to display

Question

The displaying of a javascript-parsed date is different based on the timezone of the machine loading the page.

SERVER TIME: EST
MACHINE #1 TIME: EST - shows proper date
MACHINE #2 TIME: EST - shows proper date
MACHINE #3 TIME: PST - shows one day earlier 
MACHINE #4 TIME: PST - shows one day earlier 

I'm wondering how to parse a JSON date such that the time zone will not be a factor. Here's my current code:

var jsonDate = "/Date(1341633600000)/";
var formattedDate = new Date(parseInt(jsonDate.substr(6)));
return formattedDate.getMonth() + 1 + "/" + formattedDate.getDate() + "/" + formattedDate.getFullYear();

What's the best approach to ignore the timezone offset?

Answer 1

The problem has nothing to do with parsing the dates. You're sending a UTC timestamp to the client, and the client is (correctly) reflecting the date in local terms.

You can always use the getUTCxxx methods (getUTCDate(), getUTCMonth(), getUTCFullYear()) to make the page show the date as UTC. Alternatively, you could convert the timestamp to a date string on the server in its local time zone, so that the client time zone wouldn't figure into it at all.