The ABL DATE, DATETIME, and DATETIME-TZ data types are explicit with respect to the inclusion or exclusion of time and time zone values. When sending date/time values to an OpenEdge Web service, the client application must precisely match the expected format. The WSA returns a SOAP fault if the client request fails to include a time or time zone when that information is expected, or if the client includes unexpected time or time zone information.

In the case of a DATE field, the WSDL document maps the item unambiguously to the XML Schema data type xsd:date. Both DATETIME and DATETIME-TZ, however, map to the xsd:dateTime data type; therefore, the WSDL does not tell the client developer whether a time zone value is required. The developer must obtain this information by another means and must ensure that the client application sends the expected value.

The following table lists the XML date data formats that are valid as input for each of the ABL data types; use of any other input format results in a SOAP fault.