 new features the date api now uses php 52 date functions for better date and timezone handling and has php 4 emulations for those functions so the module will work in php4 although the code will work with php 4 it is significantly faster and more efficient under php 52 or higher so php 52 is highly recommended the database query handling has been completely reworked to take advantage of database timezone handling when available with a fallback to the older and less reliable method of using offsets to do timezone adjustments no more need for the adodb date library historical dates earlier than 1970 and later than 2038 are handled without any external code ical integration is greatly improved an ical parser can parse events alarms most types of dates and timezones duration repeat rules and more the date api creates date elements that can be used by any module including dateselect datetextfield and datetimezone a new date timezone module overrides the site and user timezone selectors to allow you to select a timezone name instead of a timezone offset and that stored name is used to properly adjust date values it also detects the user s timezone name automatically and updates the user record with that name a new date popup module creates a jquery popup calendar date picker and time picker and the element is available to other modules as a form type of datepopup the date module now has lots of new ways to define default values you can set a the default to blank now or relative where relative is something like 90 days the to date has a separate default value which can be the same as the from date or do something different a date repeat api module has been added which can be used by any other module the cck date module uses it to allow you to select repeating as a type of multiple date present the user with a form to select the repeat rules for their date and then create all the multiple values that match those rules  