README

A Moodle block that displays the current time in multiple timezones. It can be added to course pages, activities, and the Moodle dashboard.

Features

• Manual mode — pick any timezones from the full IANA timezone list to display, per block instance.
• Automatic mode — instead of a fixed list, the block displays every distinct timezone used by users enrolled in a course. On a course page this defaults to that course; anywhere else (e.g. the dashboard) you can explicitly choose the source course.
• Clocks update live in the browser (no page refresh) and correctly handle daylight saving time for named timezones.
• "Show date" can be restricted to "Only when different", so a timezone's date only appears when it differs from the viewing user's own date.
• Per-instance display options: 24-hour vs 12-hour format, seconds, date, a sun/moon day-night icon underneath each timezone's name (day/night boundary hours configurable site-wide), and a waking-hours background colour (pink overnight, yellow at the morning/evening transition, green during the day — boundary hours also configurable site-wide).
• Timezones are sorted chronologically by their current local date and time, as if every clock were read at the same instant — ascending or descending, per block instance. Clocks that currently share the same UTC offset are ordered alphabetically by name.
• Optionally show each timezone's current UTC offset (e.g. "UTC+9") next to its name.
• Multiple instances of the block can be added to the same page.

Installation

Copy (or check out) this plugin into blocks/worldclock in your Moodle installation, then visit Site administration > Notifications to complete the install.

Configuration

Add the block to a course page or the dashboard, then use the block's Configure action to choose:

• Block title — optional override of the default title.
• Timezones to display — Selected timezones (manual list) or All timezones of users enrolled in a course (automatic).
• Course — only used in automatic mode; the course whose enrolled users' timezones should be shown. Leave blank to use the course the block is currently displayed on.
• Timezones — only used in manual mode; the fixed list of timezones to show.
• Sort order — Ascending or Descending chronological order.
• Show UTC offset, Use 24-hour time format, Show seconds, Show date (with an Only when different sub-setting), Show day/night icon, Colour background by time of day — display options.

In automatic mode, the viewing user must have the moodle/course:viewparticipants capability in the source course or the block will show nothing.

Site administration settings

Under Site administration > Plugins > Blocks > World clock:

• The waking-hours background boundary hours (night/morning/day/evening start) apply to every block instance that has Colour background by time of day enabled.
• Icon day start / Icon night start control the boundary hours for the sun/moon day-night icon (defaults to 6am/6pm), for every block instance that has Show day/night icon enabled.

Continuous integration

A GitHub Actions workflow (.github/workflows/ci.yml) runs the moodle-plugin-ci test suite against Moodle 5.0, 5.1, and 5.2, using every PHP version each branch actually supports (5.0/5.1: PHP 8.2-8.4; 5.2: PHP 8.3-8.4, since Moodle 5.2 raises its minimum PHP requirement to 8.3), crossed with both Postgres and MariaDB.

Privacy

The block only stores the configuration chosen by whoever added it (a title, a mode, and a list of timezones or a course id). In automatic mode it reads, but never stores, the timezone field of enrolled users purely to render the block for the current request. See classes/privacy/provider.php.

Support

Report issues to the plugin maintainer.