Featured Product date problem-I'm Stuck!

I'm trying to set up a few Featured Products but when I set up the dates to start and finish, then save/insert, they change to 30/11/2036 for both start and finish. I go back and edit it again and it changes again.
What would be the problem here? I'm stuck!

On both the ADMIN and CATALOG sides of the store, there are english.php files, inside of which the date formatting is configured.

These date formats should match, so if you are using mm/dd/yyyy in CATALOG, you should also be using mm/dd/yyyy in ADMIN.

Open these two files to see what date formats are being applied. This might be where your issue lies... I'm not sure, but we can rule it out if the formats are identical in both files.

Thanks for the reply.

In both files (about line 31..)
it says:
define('DATE_FORMAT', 'd/m/Y'); // this is used for date()

Is that the reference you were talking about?

The admin file has this on the next line, whereas the catalog one hasn't:
define('DATE_FORMAT_SPIFFYCAL', 'dd/MM/yyyy'); //Use only 'dd', 'MM' and 'yyyy' here in any order

This entire section controls the date formatting:

// look in your $PATH_LOCALE/locale directory for available locales..
// on RedHat try 'en_US'
// on FreeBSD try 'en_US.ISO_8859-1'
// on Windows try 'en', or 'English'
  @setlocale(LC_TIME, 'en_US.ISO_8859-1');
  define('DATE_FORMAT_SHORT', '%m/%d/%Y');  // this is used for strftime()
  define('DATE_FORMAT_LONG', '%A %d %B, %Y'); // this is used for strftime()
  define('DATE_FORMAT', 'm/d/Y'); // this is used for date()
  define('DATE_TIME_FORMAT', DATE_FORMAT_SHORT . ' %H:%M:%S');

////
// Return date in raw format
// $date should be in format mm/dd/yyyy
// raw date is in format YYYYMMDD, or DDMMYYYY
  if (!function_exists('zen_date_raw')) {
    function zen_date_raw($date, $reverse = false) {
      if ($reverse) {
        return substr($date, 3, 2) . substr($date, 0, 2) . substr($date, 6, 4);
      } else {
        return substr($date, 6, 4) . substr($date, 0, 2) . substr($date, 3, 2);
      }
    }
  }

The above example is for mm/dd/yyyy and the** LOCALE** is set as US

VERY CAREFULLY compare the above with what I have put below, which is the dd/mm/yyyy format for LOCALE UK

// look in your $PATH_LOCALE/locale directory for available locales..
// on RedHat try 'en_US'
// on FreeBSD try 'en_US.ISO_8859-1'
// on Windows try 'en', or 'English'
@setlocale(LC_TIME, 'en_UK.ISO_8859-1');
define('DATE_FORMAT_SHORT', '%d/%m/%Y');  // this is used for strftime()
define('DATE_FORMAT_LONG', '%A %d %B, %Y'); // this is used for strftime()
define('DATE_FORMAT', 'd/m/Y'); // this is used for date()
define('DATE_TIME_FORMAT', DATE_FORMAT_SHORT . ' %H:%M:%S');

////
// Return date in raw format
// $date should be in format dd/mm/yyyy
// raw date is in format YYYYMMDD, or DDMMYYYY
  if (!function_exists('zen_date_raw')) {
function zen_date_raw($date, $reverse = false) {
if ($reverse) {
          return substr($date, 0, 2) . substr($date, 3, 2) . substr($date, 6, 4);
} else {
  return substr($date, 6, 4) . substr($date, 3, 2) . substr($date, 0, 2);
      }
    }
  }

NOTE THE DIFFERENCES, particularly in these lines:

return substr($date, 0, 2) . substr($date, 3, 2) . substr($date, 6, 4);

... and yes... there is that little addition in the ADMIN file

Darn it, it didn't work...:shocking:

The Long Format for the Catalog file was A,B,D,Y and I changed it to A,D,B,Y ( to replicate the admin one)......this didn't seem to change anything.
The code-line that you pointed out for special attention was the same for both:(3,2 0,2 6,4) so I didn't touch them.
Should I change the Locale to your UK one? Or leave it alone?

Do you have time zone offset module installed?

Is your server clock functioning OK and is it properly set? Ask your host...

LOCALE should just match, but if you are UK, I'd set it to UK

Success!
I changed the 1st substr line to :0,2 - 3,2 - 6,4 (and the next line to 6,4 - 3,2 - 0,2)
Thanks for getting me on the right track Schoolboy! Cheers.

Just got your last post...
"Do you have time zone offset module installed?

Is your server clock functioning OK and is it properly set? Ask your host...

LOCALE should just match, but if you are UK, I'd set it to UK "

As i just stated, everythings fine now, should I still check these things out with the Host though?
Thanks again.

Yeah... I did warn you to pay very careful attention to the lines - particularly those...

Anyway, glad you got it sorted.

So basically if i change includes/languages/english.php from:

// look in your $PATH_LOCALE/locale directory for available locales.. 
// on RedHat try 'en_US' 
// on FreeBSD try 'en_US.ISO_8859-1' 
// on Windows try 'en', or 'English' 
  @setlocale(LC_TIME, 'en_US.ISO_8859-1'); 
  define('DATE_FORMAT_SHORT', '%m/%d/%Y');  // this is used for strftime() 
  define('DATE_FORMAT_LONG', '%A %d %B, %Y'); // this is used for strftime() 
  define('DATE_FORMAT', 'm/d/Y'); // this is used for date() 
  define('DATE_TIME_FORMAT', DATE_FORMAT_SHORT . ' %H:%M:%S'); 

//// 
// Return date in raw format 
// $date should be in format mm/dd/yyyy 
// raw date is in format YYYYMMDD, or DDMMYYYY 
  if (!function_exists('zen_date_raw')) { 
    function zen_date_raw($date, $reverse = false) { 
      if ($reverse) { 
        return substr($date, 3, 2) . substr($date, 0, 2) . substr($date, 6, 4); 
      } else { 
        return substr($date, 6, 4) . substr($date, 0, 2) . substr($date, 3, 2); 
      } 
    } 
  }  

to

// look in your $PATH_LOCALE/locale directory for available locales.. 
// on RedHat try 'en_US' 
// on FreeBSD try 'en_US.ISO_8859-1' 
// on Windows try 'en', or 'English' 
@setlocale(LC_TIME, 'en_UK.ISO_8859-1'); 
define('DATE_FORMAT_SHORT', '%d/%m/%Y');  // this is used for strftime() 
define('DATE_FORMAT_LONG', '%A %d %B, %Y'); // this is used for strftime() 
define('DATE_FORMAT', 'd/m/Y'); // this is used for date() 
define('DATE_TIME_FORMAT', DATE_FORMAT_SHORT . ' %H:%M:%S'); 

//// 
// Return date in raw format 
// $date should be in format dd/mm/yyyy 
// raw date is in format YYYYMMDD, or DDMMYYYY 
  if (!function_exists('zen_date_raw')) { 
function zen_date_raw($date, $reverse = false) { 
if ($reverse) { 
          return substr($date, 0, 2) . substr($date, 3, 2) . substr($date, 6, 4); 
} else { 
  return substr($date, 6, 4) . substr($date, 3, 2) . substr($date, 0, 2); 
      } 
    } 
  }  

this should change the date formatting globally?
in both admin and catalogue?

ofc this won't change previous orders/products etc but will change any new ones going forward?

• will this cause issues with current dated things, like voucher codes with expiration dates etc?

Andy.