Date Format in CSV Export from Clarity MUX Does Not Follow User Locale

Products

• Clarity PPM On Premise
• Clarity FedRAMP
• Clarity PPM SaaS

Issue/Introduction

When users export data to CSV from Clarity MUX list pages (Projects, Tasks, Status Reports, Hierarchies, or sub-grids), the exported file displays dates in a format that does not match the user's configured locale.

Specifically:

• Users with English (United Kingdom) locale expect dates in DD/MM/YYYY format (e.g., 01/04/2026)
• On Clarity 16.2.0, the exported CSV contains dates in US format M/d/yyyy (e.g., 4/1/2026)
• On Clarity 16.4.x, the exported CSV contains dates in ISO 8601 format yyyy-MM-dd (e.g., 2026-04-01)

The behavior is consistent across all users regardless of their locale setting and affects all list pages that offer the Export to CSV option.

Environment

Clarity 16.4.1,16.4.2

Cause

The "Export to CSV" action in Clarity MUX triggers a server-side asynchronous job (CSV_EXPORT_ITEMS) that calls the REST API internally and writes the response to a CSV file. The date formatting logic in this job uses a hardcoded date format and does not consult the user's locale or the formatting locale from the user's security context.

• In Clarity 16.2.0 and earlier: The CSV export engine did not explicitly specify a date format locale when generating output, causing the application server to fall back to its default locale — which is US English (en_US) on most server deployments. This results in dates being written in M/d/yyyy format (for example, 4/1/2026), without zero-padding for the month or day.

• In Clarity 16.4.x or higher: The format is explicitly hardcoded to yyyy-MM-dd (ISO 8601). This is uniform across all users regardless of locale.

The user's language/locale preference in their Clarity profile (English (United Kingdom) or any other locale) controls how dates are rendered in the Clarity MUX interface, but has no effect on the date format written into exported CSV files.

Resolution

There is no configuration setting — at the admin level or user level — that changes the date format in CSV exports from Clarity MUX. This is by-design behavior.

Short-term workaround: After exporting, reformat the date column in the CSV file before distributing to end users.

Common options:

• Microsoft Excel: Use Data → Text to Columns or Power Query to parse and reformat the date column to the desired regional format.
• Python / scripting: Use pandas or standard csv + datetime libraries to read and reformat the date fields.
  
  

 

Additional Information

Raise an Enhancement Request  through the Clarity Idea Portal requesting locale-aware date formatting in Clarity MUX CSV exports. Include the number of affected users and any regulatory or reporting requirements to support prioritization.