API: How to set date/time parameters

The Parse.ly API allows for both fixed and relative time inputs to query data. Learn more about the metrics that you can pair with date/time values in queries.

Fixed Time

Parse.ly allows for a variety of fixed time formats.

Format	Description
YYYY-MM-DD	Year-Month-Day. Example: 2012-01-02 for January 2nd, 2012. This defaults to your publisher timezone in the dashboard, and is considered end of day (23:59) for end time parameters.
YYYY-MM-DD±00:00	Year-Month-Day with timezone offset. Example: 2012-01-02-05:00 for January 2nd, 2012 EST. This is assumed to be 23:59 in the specified timezone for end time parameters.
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm	Year-Month-Day with time in publisher timezone. Example: 2012-01-02T07:30 for January 2nd, 2012 7:30 am.
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm±00:00	Year-Month-Day with time and timezone. Example: 2012-01-02T07:30+00:00 for January 2nd, 2012 7:30 am UTC.

All values need to be appropriately URL-encoded when submitted, or you may receive an error. Notably, the + sign in positive timezone offsets will need to be converted to %2B, either your HTTP request library or manually, otherwise it will be interpreted as a space.

Timezone offsets in string form, e.g. Eastern, EST or UTC, are not allowed.

Relative Time

Parse.ly also allows for relative time formats.

Relative times are a number followed by m, h, d, w for minutes, hours, days, and weeks, respectively.

Examples: 15m for 15 minutes ago, 24h for 24 hours ago.

Formats like 15min, 15 min or 15minutes should not be used.