Set Timezone

[paul]

Hi Dan:

I wrote this script (timezone.py) to set timezone within SIP (ie., without having to go through sudo raspi-config).
The script detects the ip-address of isp (external_ip), to determine its timezone id (e.g. Asia/Shanghai), and then set the timezone via the command line.
Running this script ("python3 /pi/home/SIP/timezone.py") will change the device time on SIP/template/base.html

To test, I switch the timezone between my isp ip-address and a dummy external_ip (external_ip = '64.233.191.255' is a google ip-address in Los Angelse)

#### begin of timezone.py #####
#!/bin/bash
# path: /home/pi/SIP/timezone.py
# references:
# https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewt...p?t=197938
# https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6357...-in-python
"""
change timezone via python script

"""

import json
import urllib.request
import subprocess

GEO_IP_API_URL = 'http://ip-api.com/json/'
external_ip = urllib.request.urlopen('https://ident.me').read().decode('utf8')
#external_ip = '64.233.191.255'
# Creating request object to GeoLocation API
req = urllib.request.Request(GEO_IP_API_URL+external_ip)
# Getting in response JSON
response = urllib.request.urlopen(req).read()
# Loading JSON from text to object
json_response = json.loads(response.decode('utf-8'))

# Print timezone
timezone = json_response['timezone']
print('timezone: {}'.format(timezone))

if __name__ == "__main__":
    out = subprocess.run('sudo ln -fs /usr/share/zoneinfo/' + timezone + ' /etc/localtime', shell=True)
    print(out)
    out = subprocess.run('sudo dpkg-reconfigure -f noninteractive tzdata', shell=True)
    print(out)

#### end of timezone.py #####

In the options page, I include a "Set timezone" button below the 24-hour clock checkbox. This addition shows up in 3 places in options.html page.

1a. In SIP/templates/options.html, I introduce a button id 'cSetTimezone' below the condition 'if name == "tf"'(so this button will appear to the right of 24-hour clock checkbox):

            if datatype == "boolean":
                output += "<input name='o" + name + "' type='checkbox' " + ("checked" if value>0 else "") + ">\n"
                if name == "tf":
                    output += "&nbsp;<button id='cSetTimezone' title=" + json.dumps(_(u'Use only if device time is wrong; Use isp ip-address to correct'), ensure_ascii=False) + ">" + _(u'Set timezone')+"</button>"

1b. In the jQuery section, after jQuery("button#cRestart"), I include a corresponding jQuery("button#cSetTimezone"). The name='stz' is used further down in webpages.py.

        jQuery("button#cRestart").click(function(){
            jQuery("input[name='rstrt']").val(1);
            jQuery("form[name='of']").submit();
        });

        jQuery("button#cSetTimezone").click(function(){
            jQuery("input[name='stz']").val(1);
            jQuery("form[name='of']").submit();
        });

1c. Under the "hidden" section to hide the background checkbox, after the Restart checkbox (name='rstrt'), I hide the "stz" checkbox:
        <input type="hidden" name="rstrt" value="0">
        <input type="hidden" name="stz" value="0">

The button 'stz' requires a restart to update device time.

2. In SIP/webpages.py, I include a u"stz" (set timezone) section ala u"rstrt".

        if u"rstrt" in qdict and qdict[u"rstrt"] == u"1":
            restart(2)
            raise web.seeother(u"/restart")

        if u"stz" in qdict and qdict[u"stz"] == u"1":
            report_timezone_set()
            subprocess.run('sudo python3 /home/pi/SIP/timezone.py', shell=True)
            restart(2)
            raise web.seeother(u"/restart")

Paul

[dan]

Interesting.
Thanks for posting your code. I will give it a try.

Dan

[paul]

I think my above arrangement is not a good idea. Instead of a button which executes immediately when pressed, the set_timezone function should be implemented as a checkbox like the 24-hour clock format, to be executed after the submit button is clicked.

But unlike the 24-hour clock, the set_timezone checkbox should be left unchecked when the page loads every time, to avoid accidental execution in case user forgets to uncheck. This should be easier to implement.