Is there a way to change the the timestamp format for use in event frame notifications?

Question

I am looking to send recipients of an email notification a screenshot of a PI Vision display, which adjusts to the asset, start time, and end time associated with an event frame. My problem is that the timestamp format for the EF start and end times does not work with the URL query parameters (yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss). I found through this post that the format is tied to the database configuration, but it isn't practical to adjust the formatting for the entire database for this one purpose.

I was thinking maybe I can create an event frame attribute for the start time, but when I try, I cannot figure out how to change the format (which is currently m/d/yyyy hh:mm:ss AM/PM, btw).

Thanks,

Matt

mmahaffy · Accepted Answer

I've found the relevant documents and have done some trial and error. This is the solution I found to my string formatting issues:

This link provides some "shortcut" datetime formats provided by PI https://docs.aveva.com/bundle/pi-server-l-builder/page/1020925.html
This link provides details for full custom formatting of a datetime https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/base-types/custom-date-and-time-format-strings

As for my need to use the datetime in my EF notifications and to build the PI Vision display URL. I created a "formattedStartTime" attribute for my event frame template, and entered %StartTime:s%, which returns the Start Time in "2009-06-15T13:45:30" format. Then, for my notification URL parameters, I set the start time using this formatted EF attribute, and I set the EndTime to '*', as the EF for a notification is typically an ongoing event.

Shoutout to this knowledge article which pointed me in the right direction!

https://customers.osisoft.com/s/knowledgearticle?knowledgeArticleUrl=000041449