Setting a date format in ASP.NET web.config globalization tag?

Question

In our web.config I am using the following tag to determine the interface language of an ASP.NET website.

<globalization
   enableClientBasedCulture="true"        
   culture="auto:en-GB"
   uiCulture="auto:en"/>

This works as expected: Client wo request a specific localisation get it, everybody else is happily looking at the en-GB settings.

Due to company policy I need to change the date format to the ISO 8601 standard format (YYYY-MM-DD) for everybody. Is this possible at a central place in the web.config or do I need to change this manually in every instance?

Addition: Would it be possible to do get this date format when restricting the interface to english?

Answer 1

You should build your own culture by using CultureAndRegionInfoBuilder

 class Program
        {
            static void Main(string[] args)
            {
                CultureInfo ci;
                CultureAndRegionInfoBuilder cib = null;
                try
                {
                    // Create a CultureAndRegionInfoBuilder object named "x-en-GB".
                    Console.WriteLine("Create and explore the CultureAndRegionInfoBuilder...\n");
                    cib = new CultureAndRegionInfoBuilder(
                        "x-en-GB", CultureAndRegionModifiers.None);

                    // Populate the new CultureAndRegionInfoBuilder object with culture information.
                    ci = new CultureInfo("en-GB");
                    ci.DateTimeFormat.ShortDatePattern = "yyyy-MM-dd";
                    //ci.DateTimeFormat.FullDateTimePattern = "yyyy-MM-dd";
                    //ci.DateTimeFormat.LongDatePattern = "yyyy-MM-dd";

//...
                    //...
                    cib.LoadDataFromCultureInfo(ci);




                    // Populate the new CultureAndRegionInfoBuilder object with region information.
                    RegionInfo ri = new RegionInfo("GB");
                    cib.LoadDataFromRegionInfo(ri);

                    Console.WriteLine("Register the custom culture...");
                    cib.Register();



                }
                catch (Exception e)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine(e);
                }

                Console.WriteLine("Create and explore the custom culture...\n");
                ci = new CultureInfo("x-en-GB");

                //Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = ci;
                //Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = ci;

                Console.WriteLine(DateTime.Now.ToString(ci));

                Console.ReadLine();
            }
        }

Answer 2

If you need the format to be the same across cultures, you will have to set the DateTimeFormat whenever you instantiate a CultureInfo object.

There is no global config option for this.