Issue using CJuiDatePicker with different formats - php

Question

I am using CJuiDatePicker in my form and I need to use two different formats: mm/dd/yy to be shown and dd/mm/yy to be sent in $_POST.
$questionario->widget('zii.widgets.jui.CJuiDatePicker', array(
'model' => $modeloDoQuestionario,
'attribute' => 'data_preenchimento',
'language' => 'en',
'options' => array(
'showAnim' => 'fold',
'showButtonPanel' => true,
'showOn' => 'both',
'dateFormat' => 'dd/mm/yy',
'altField' => '#Questionarios_data_preenchimento',
'altFormat' => 'mm/dd/yy',
),
'htmlOptions' => array(
'style' => 'height:14px;'
),
));
This is the field in HTML:
<input style="height:14px;" id="Questionarios_data_preenchimento" name="Questionarios[data_preenchimento]" type="text" />
But I still get the mm/dd/yy format in $_POST... What can be wrong?

Answer 1

You can put in the configuration file: 'main.php' something like this:
'widgetFactory' => array(
'widgets' => array(
'CJuiDatePicker' => array(
'scriptFile' => 'jquery-ui.min.js',
'language' => 'en',
'options' => array(
'dateFormat' => 'dd/mm/yy',
'showAnim' => 'fold',
'fontSize' => '0.85em',
),
),
),
),
With this ever that you call a 'CJuiDatePicker' widget will inherit this format.

Answer 2

I was looking for the same thing and have a slightly different solution.
I was mainly looking for on form pages to display the date as DD-MM-YYYY and save in the database as YYYY-MM-DD.
Regardless of changing the dateFormat option on CJuiDatePicker and even trying to use altFormat (using altField as well as apparently this is necessary) option, the date did not show in the desired format, granted if I were to change the date, the format would be shown correctly.
So I created a Custom class in components and created two methods, one to reformat the date to the DD-MM-YYYY format and one to format the date to the correct YYYY-MM-DD to be saved in the database.
Here is the Custom class (the file is called Custom.php and kept in components.)
class Custom
{
/*
**This method formats the date to be human readble ie 21-06-2013
*/
public function reformatDate($date)
{
if($date == '0000-00-00')
{
$newDate = '00-00-0000';
return $newDate;
}
elseif($date == '')
{
return $date;
}
else
{
$newDate = date("d-m-Y", strtotime($date));
return $newDate;
}
}
/*
**This method formats the date to the correct format according to the database
*/
public function formatDate($date)
{
if($date == '00-00-0000')
{
$newDate = '0000-00-00';
return $newDate;
}
elseif($date == '')
{
return $date;
}
else
{
$newDate = date("Y-m-d", strtotime($date));
return $newDate;
}
}
}
Now that I had methods to change the dates to the correct formats. On the _form page I declared at the top, under the initiation of the form.
$model->date_required = Custom::reformatDate($model->date_required);
$model->date_created = Custom::reformatDate($model->date_created);
$model->date_completed = Custom::reformatDate($model->date_completed);
This now results in the date being shown correctly, both when the _form page is viewed and the date is changed via the CJuiDatePicker as i still use the dateFormat option to show the correct format when the date is changed.
Lastly I added to both the create and update actions of the controller the following.
if(isset($_POST['Tickets']))
{
$model->attributes=$_POST['Tickets'];
$model->date_created = Custom::formatDate($model->date_created);
$model->date_required = Custom::formatDate($_POST['Tickets']['date_required']);
$model->date_completed = Custom::formatDate($_POST['Tickets']['date_completed']);
if($model->save())
So before the data is then saved back to the database I format the date to the correct format and pop it into the database.
I'm not expert and only a few month into Yii and about 9 months into PHP. I know there are all sorts of before and after save methods and this may not be the best way to do it, in fact if there is a better way I am all ears. But for now this is working for me. hope ths helps someone.
/* Small Update */
After speaking with a colleague who has been doing this stuff for about a decade. he said it would be much cleaner to remove the code I placed on the form page under the form initiation and move it rather into the controller, so for example my update method appears like so
public function actionUpdate($id)
{
$model=$this->loadModel($id);
$model->date_required = Custom::reformatDate($model->date_required);
$model->date_created = Custom::reformatDate($model->date_created);
$model->date_completed = Custom::reformatDate($model->date_completed);
So rather than reformatting the dates on the form page, it is done directly after loadModel, keeping the view cleaner.