Beginner velocity scripting

[Liz_Davalos]

I'm trying to make a script for email that sets the expiration date for an offer 7 days from the send date. Here's what I have, but I can't seem to piece it together.

## Get a java Calendar

#set($x = $date.calendar)

## Add 24 hours (hours=int code 10 - see list below)

$x.add(10,168)

#set( $inTimeZone = $date.getTimeZone().getTimeZone('America/Los_Angeles') ) 

#set( $outTimeZone = $date.getTimeZone().getTimeZone('America/Los_Angeles') ) 

#set( $locale = $date.getLocale() ) 

#set( $myDate = $convert.parseDate($x.time,'MM-dd-yy HH:mm:ss',$locale,$inTimeZone) ) 

${date.format('MMMM dd, yyyy hh:mm a z',$myDate,$locale,$outTimeZone)} 

Ideally I'd like to format the output date to MMM dd, yyyy hh:ss PST.

[SanfordWhiteman]

Have you read this blog entry from earlier this week? Velocitips: Switch email content based on day/time

[Liz_Davalos]

I didn't see that, and I searched heavily for this answer. Anyway I tried that and nothing prints out. How do I get the date generated to show?

[SanfordWhiteman]

Tried what, though?

Also, to be clear about your goal, you aren't really "expiring" anything... you just want to display 7 days from the send time. (Whether the offer is still valid on a technical level sn't something Velocity can control unleas you're also using an expiring URL service.)

[SanfordWhiteman]

I added an example to the blog post that seems to be what you're looking for (scroll to the end).

I assume you don't really want

hh:ss

(12-hour hours:seconds)

but actually

HH:mm

(24-hour hours:minutes) or

hh:mm a

(12-hour hours:minutes AM/PM)

[Liz_Davalos]

Thank you for this, something still seems to be wrong? This is what shows up what I plug that in the the Marketoemail script area:

"$calNow.add($calConst.DATE,7) Our promo expires 7 days from today, which is ${date.format( $FRIENDLY_24H_DATETIME_WITH_FRIENDLY_TZ, $calNow, $defaultLocale,$defaultTimeZone )} 11:59PM PST"

Sorry, I'm a beginner at velocity scripting and for whatever reason date/time scripts always seem super complicated .

[SanfordWhiteman · Accepted solution]

Have you included the common variables (the ones at the top of the blog post)?

[SanfordWhiteman]

date/time scripts always seem super complicated .

That's not a bad thing! if they don't seem complicated, you're probably doing something wrong. Most examples are broken because people thought it was easy and they didn't test the edge cases.

[Liz_Davalos]

Thank you for that solution. That give me a good starting point for other date scripts too and now I have a working expiration date. These emails will be triggered so it is a continuous promotion, the date is just to add some urgency. The trouble I've had elsewhere when trying to figure it out was a lack of real world examples. I've saved your blog and imagine I'll be back to it sometime soon.