Create Timer Based On String Date

[baratheon]

I need the user of a plugin I'm developing to be able to set a timer to a specific date/time. Currently, I have a script which takes in the string input of the date/time that the user defined in the interface, and converts it into a date object, and creates a timer. The problem that I have is, the original string date/time the user set is being converted into a different timezone. So, the timer displays different time based on what timezone a person viewing the website is in. Obviously, I don't want that.

Does anybody have an idea how to keep the date/time the same for everyone?

Thanks.

[Wormopolis]

the date object in javascript allows you to fetch the timezone of the viewer. if you do some math on it you can add or subtract hours from the date object to force it into a fixed timezone.

[baratheon]

I wouldn't want a fixed timezone. Let me explain this better...

Say, the user enters a date of today and the time of 8:00 PM (CST), which is about 3 hours from now. What I'd like to happen, is for everyone to see a countdown starting at 3 hours and going down until reaching 0 (when the winner of the raffle is selected). What I have at the moment is people receiving different countdowns based on their timezones - which like I said I don't want.

[P̌̓aͧś̀t̀u͒le͆o͂2̀3̃̓]

Well what wormo is saying works. It's what most people would do.
You get the timezone of the user. You convert it to central standard time. You save it in a key.
They load the key, you get the timezone of the user, you convert central standard time to their timezone.
It works normally.
THE ALTERNATIVE:
Make your own clock.
Have it save based on that clock.
Have it load based on that clock.
Which I have no idea on how you would do.

So use wormo's method and start here:
www.w3schools.com/js/js_obj_date.asp

[Wormopolis]

or when the countdown is created, you store the timezone. when someone looks at the countdown, the code compares their timezone to the one stored and adjusts the time accordingly.

its what I did for my countdown plugin