timezone change with date()

Posted on 16th Feb 2014 by admin

so i put all my times for posts in my made from scratch forum(not phpbb3 or sm)
in my mysql db using the time()
and when i show the time on webpages i use the date('ymd/h:i:s', $time) kind of thing.
now the default timezone is America/New_York for php or whatever
but IM GOING to make a thing upon registering on my site that the user choses what timezone they are in.

now i have two questions.
1. arent there only 24 different timezone hours? (i know theres more names than that.. but does anyone know of 24 main ones so i can get all the zones but not have to have all the cities etc..

2. since im going to be storing the users timezone pick in a mysql db, im going to put their timezone pick in a session variable and then echo it into whatever way im displaying the time or at least i hope i can do that.. so is there someway i can do that.. to show the time in a certain timezone(the choice of the user that ill put in the session var)
?

any help?

Other forums