Test Result StartedAt Time gets changed during update_results_v2

[ericthemantis]

The test result started_at timestamp is shifted back by the amount of the server timezone offset from UTC during the update_results_v2 API call.

You can see this by printing out the "test_result" object before and after the update_results_v2 API call in systemlink-server-examples/python/testmonitor/results.py

# Update the top-level test result's status based on the most severe child step's status.
display(test_result)
update_result_request = UpdateTestResultsRequest(results=[test_result], determine_status_from_steps=True)
response = await results_api.update_results_v2(update_result_request)
test_result = response.results[0]
display(test_result)

Output (properties abridged):

{'id': '84875ab5-d9b2-45ad-8e7b-9dfc7596d6a4',
 'started_at': datetime.datetime(2026, 5, 4, 17, 37, 6, 451284, tzinfo=tzutc()),
 'status': {'status_name': None, 'status_type': 'RUNNING'},
 'total_time_in_seconds': 0.0,
 'updated_at': datetime.datetime(2026, 5, 4, 17, 42, 6, 513275, tzinfo=tzutc())}

{'id': '84875ab5-d9b2-45ad-8e7b-9dfc7596d6a4',
 'started_at': datetime.datetime(2026, 5, 4, 10, 37, 6, 451284, tzinfo=tzutc()),
 'status': {'status_name': None, 'status_type': 'FAILED'},
 'total_time_in_seconds': 55.36366307250671,
 'updated_at': datetime.datetime(2026, 5, 4, 17, 42, 10, 604546, tzinfo=tzutc())}

This is due to a bug (unfiled) in the generated code in the generated python api, where a datetime object is not properly converted to an ISO-formatted string from the SystemLink REST API's.

Workaround:
Add the following line to convert the datetime object to a formatted string before calling update_results_v2

# Update the top-level test result's status based on the most severe child step's status.
test_result.started_at = (test_result.started_at).strftime("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%fZ") # New line to force properly formatted string
update_result_request = UpdateTestResultsRequest(results=[test_result], determine_status_from_steps=True)
response = await results_api.update_results_v2(update_result_request)
test_result = response.results[0]

Note: a formatted string should be used for the started_at property when creating a result, if a started_at time is explicitly set (a value of None sets the started_at as the current time)