#ifndef __FormatTime_h_
#define __FormatTime_h_

// time_t is our preferred time format.  That is espeically true when we share
// a time value over the network.  However, there is a problem.  Some people
// insist that the time appear on their screen in Eastern time, even though
// the time on their computer is not Eastern time.  It is very hard for the
// client software to make this conversion.  So we do the conversion on the
// server.

#include <time.h>
#include <string>

// This accepts two different formats.  If it looks like a normal integer
// (i.e. "1274141860") then we just convert from a string to an integer.  We
// assume it's a valid time_t.  On the other hand, if it looks like a valid
// mysql date & time (i.e. "2010-05-07 10:52:00") then we convert from that
// format to time_t, and we assume the time is coming from the Eastern time
// zone.  If it does not look like a valid time (i.e. "") then we return 0.
time_t importTime(std::string const &asString);

// If forceEastern is false, we just convert the integer to a string.  If 
// forceEastern is true, we export it in the mysql format and use eastern time.
// If time_t is 0, regardless of forceEastern, we return the empty string.
std::string exportTime(time_t asUnix, bool forceEastern);

#endif