Why time functions show invalid time zone when using ‘c’ time format?

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These are the functions I use in my theme to display the “entry-meta” which includes published and last modified dates (among others) of an article:

// Shows Author and Published Date
if ( ! function_exists( 'reddle_posted_on' ) ) :
function reddle_posted_on() {
    printf( __( '<span class="byline">Posted by <span class="author vcard"><a class="url fn n" href="https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/54700/%5$s" title="%6$s" rel="author">%7$s</a></span></span><span class="sep"> &mdash; </span><span class="entry-date"><time datetime="%3$s" pubdate>%4$s</time></span>', 'reddle' ),
        esc_url( get_permalink() ),
        esc_attr( get_the_time() ),
        esc_attr( get_the_date( 'c' ) ),
        esc_html( get_the_date() ),
        esc_url( get_author_posts_url( get_the_author_meta( 'ID' ) ) ),
        sprintf( esc_attr__( 'View all posts by %s', 'the-wolf' ), get_the_author() ),
        esc_html( get_the_author() )
    );
}
endif;

// Shows Last Modified Date
if ( ! function_exists( 'reddle_last_modified_on' ) ) :
function reddle_last_modified_on() {
    printf( __( 'Last updated on <time class="updated" itemprop="dateModified" datetime="%2$s">%3$s</time>', 'reddle' ),
        esc_attr( get_the_modified_time() ),
        esc_attr( get_the_modified_date( 'c' ) ),
        esc_html( get_the_modified_date( 'F j, Y ~ H:i' ) )
    );
}
endif;

Do you see anything wrong with these functions? The problem is, despite setting the time zone of my blog to GMT-05:00 (-04:00 DST) in WordPress Dashboard > Settings > General the timestamp that is output shows GMT+00:00. Any idea why?

3 Answers
3

The issue is that for correct output WP needs to process date through date_i18n() function. When you use date format, hardcoded in PHP code (not simply saved in PHP DATE_* constant) like 'c' – it’s not available to your code and so for WP to process.

System-wide fix would be to re-process date with analogous format that can be accessed by WP code:

add_filter( 'date_i18n', 'fix_c_time_format', 10, 4 );

function fix_c_time_format( $date, $format, $timestamp, $gmt ) {

    if ( 'c' == $format )
        $date = date_i18n( DATE_ISO8601, $timestamp, $gmt );

    return $date;
}

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