Question

What is the best way to retrieve the current date? Currently I am storing the date like this:

string date = DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyyMMdd");

Obviously, if the user changes the date on their system, this will also be affected.

I need a way to access an accurate date (preferable in central time) and store it as a string within my application. Any ideas?

Answer 1

EDIT: This works, give it a try:

private string GetCurrentDateTime()
{
    WebRequest request = WebRequest.Create(@"http://developer.yahooapis.com/TimeService/V1/getTime?appid=Test");
    // request.Proxy = new WebProxy("PROXYSERVERNAME", 8080); // You may or may not need this
    WebResponse response = request.GetResponse();      

    Double currentTimeStamp = 0;
    using (Stream stream = response.GetResponseStream())
    {
        using (XmlTextReader xmlReader = new XmlTextReader(stream))
        {
            while (xmlReader.Read())
            {
                switch (xmlReader.NodeType)
                {
                    case XmlNodeType.Element:
                        if (xmlReader.Name == "Timestamp")
                        {
                            currentTimeStamp = Convert.ToDouble(xmlReader.ReadInnerXml());
                        }
                        break;
                }
            }

            xmlReader.Close();
        }
    }

    DateTime yahooDateTime = new DateTime(1970, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0);
    return yahooDateTime.AddSeconds(currentTimeStamp).AddHours(2).ToString("yyyyMMdd");     
}