I am having difficulty setting the appropriate time offset so that Smart Sync will work correctly. The documentation explains the reason for the time offset nicely, but does not tell us which way to measure the difference. For example, is it remote sever time minus local time, or is it local time minus remote server time

My setup is as follows:
Remote server time zone: GMT
My time zone: Pacific GMT -8 hours
Right now we have daylight saving: GMT -7 hours

I have tried a time offset of -8, -7, 7 and 8, and even 0. I either get that all files upload/download, or none at all And in case it makes a difference, I am using an FTP account.

Please help me figure this out.

I will answer my own question in case it helps someone else



To make Smart Sync work, use the following:
* Time offset = remote server time minus local time (7 hours for my example)
* Use SFTP (not FTP) to enable Smart Sync to set file times on the remote server.

A nice improvement would be for PhpED to automatically adjust for daylight saving

different countries use different schedule for daylight saving period. Even if we know the OFFSET in hours, we still do not know the COUNTRY

That is true, but...

Why not let the OS manage the time zones and daylight saving changes?

As far as I know, Windows (probably Linux too) internally uses GMT for file times, and merely displays file times to the user in accordance with the time zone setting on the PC. Thus, in principle, all the PhpEd needs to know is the timezone of the remote server -- it should be able to figure out the timezone of the local PC and the time difference by itself

How about a feature to determine the difference automatically? The IDE could save a file to the server and then check its timestamp and figure out the difference from local time. Since we're only concerned about hours, worries about the slight delay are mostly minimized and the one edge case remaining (doing the operation right around the hour change-over) is pretty easy to detect and handle.

it's not about determining the difference at all
it's about daylight may affect the difference when is already set.
Certainly, if both client and server operate in GMT, there should be no problem at all.

Your comment does not solve the problem at all In contrast, I think bobwilliams is on to a nice idea.

I do not see any problems there. If your server is located in another country that uses different daylight saving schedule, don't forget to adjust timeoffset two times a year.