Date Picker Plugin

Date picker screenshot
Pop-up calendar with date picker, for use in TWiki forms, HTML forms and TWiki plugins

Introduction

The DatePickerPlugin handles an input field with a pop-up calendar to select a date for use in TWiki forms and TWiki applications. The plugin is based on the Mishoo JSCalendar, a DHTML pop-up calendar. The date format can be customized.

ALERT! ATTENTION: This plugin replaces the JSCalendarContrib. The DatePickerPlugin and older versions of the JSCalendarContrib do not coexist. Before using the DatePickerPlugin, uninstall the JSCalendarContrib, or upgrade the contrib to version 2012-12-12 or later.

Use Date Picker in TWikiForms

This package adds a date type to TWikiForms:

Type Description Size Value
date Text input field and a button next to it to pick a date from a pop-up calendar. The date can also be typed into the text box. Text box width in number of characters Initial (default) date

Example form definition:

Name: Type: Size Values: Tooltip message:
Start date date 12 2024-03-19 Select start date

Use Date Picker in HTML Forms

You can also use the date picker directly in your HTML forms, without having to write any code. Just include this in the topic text:

<form action="...">
%DATEPICKER{ name="Start_date" value="2024-03-19" }%
<form>
This will show an HTML input field named "Start_date" and a button to popup a calendar to select a date.

Parameter Description Default Example
name Name of input field.
φ: No output is shown if the name parameter is missing, but the CSS and Javascript are loaded.
(requiredφ) name="Start"
value Initial date value. "" (today) value="2012-12-31"
format Format of resulting date value.
%a - abbreviated weekday name
%A - full weekday name
%b - abbreviated month name
%B - full month name
%C - century number
%d - the day of the month (00 ... 31)
%e - the day of the month (0 ... 31)
%H - hour (00 ... 23)
%I - hour (01 ... 12)
%j - day of the year ( 000 ... 366)
%k - hour (0 ... 23)
%l - hour (1 ... 12)
%m - month (01 ... 12)
%M - minute (00 ... 59)
%n - a newline character
%p - "PM" or "AM"
%P - "pm" or "am"
%S - second (00 ... 59)
%s - number of seconds since Epoch (since Jan 01 1970 00:00:00 UTC)
%t - a tab character
%U, %W, %V - the week number. The week 01 is the week that has the Thursday in the current year, which is equivalent to the week that contains the fourth day of January. Weeks start on Monday.
%u - the day of the week (1 ... 7, 1 = MON)
%w - the day of the week (0 ... 6, 0 = SUN)
%y - year without the century (00 ... 99)
%Y - year including the century (ex. 2012)
%% - a literal % character
"%Y-%m-%d" format="%e %b %Y"
id ID of input field, optional. "id_" + name id="idStart"
size Size of input field, in number of characters. (calculated as needed) size="12"
class CSS class of input field. "twikiInputField" class="dateField"
Additional HTML input field attributes, such as alt, disabled, maxlength, onblur, onchange, onfocus, readonly, style, tabindex, title    

Test: (this only works if the DatePickerPlugin is installed and enabled)

Detailed Documentation

Read the Mishoo documentation or visit the demo page for detailed information on using the calendar widget.

This plugin includes the following function to make using the calendar easier from other TWiki plugins:

renderForEdit

TWiki::Plugins::DatePickerPlugin::renderForEdit( $name, $value, $format [, \%options] ) -> $html

This is the simplest way to use calendars from a plugin.

  • $name is the name of the CGI parameter for the calendar (it should be unique),
  • $value is the current value of the parameter (may be undef)
  • $format is the format to use (optional; the default is set in configure). The HTML returned will display a date field and a drop-down calendar.
  • \%options is an optional hash containing base options for the textfield.

Notes:

  • The CSS and Javascript are added if needed, e.g. the addToHEAD() function does not need to be called.
  • No output is shown if $name is empty or undef, but the CSS and Javascript are loaded if needed. This can be used to preload the CSS and Javascript with a parameterless %DATEPICKER{}% variable.

Example:

use TWiki::Plugins::DatePickerPlugin;
...
my $fromDate = TWiki::Plugins::DatePickerPlugin::renderForEdit(
   'from', '2012-12-31');
my $toDate = TWiki::Plugins::DatePickerPlugin::renderForEdit(
   'to', undef, '%Y');

addToHEAD

TWiki::Plugins::DatePickerPlugin::addToHEAD( $setup )

This function will automatically add the headers for the calendar to the page being rendered. It's intended for use when you want more control over the formatting of your calendars than renderForEdit affords. $setup is the name of the calendar setup module; it can either be omitted, in which case the method described in the Mishoo documentation can be used to create calendars, or it can be 'twiki', in which case a Javascript helper function called 'showCalendar' is added that simplifies using calendars to set a value in a text field. For example, say we wanted to display the date with the calendar icon before the text field, using the format %Y %b %e

use TWiki::Plugins::DatePickerPlugin;
...

sub commonTagsHandler {
  ....
  # Add styles and javascript for the date picker & enable 'showCalendar'
  TWiki::Plugins::DatePickerPlugin::addToHEAD( 'twiki' );

  my $cal = CGI::image_button(
      -name => 'img_datefield',
      -onclick =>
       "return showCalendar('id_datefield','%Y %b %e')",
      -src=> TWiki::Func::getPubUrlPath() . '/' .
             TWiki::Func::getTwikiWebname() .
             '/DatePickerPlugin/img.gif',
      -alt => 'Calendar',
      -align => 'middle' )
    . CGI::textfield(
      { name => 'date', id => "id_datefield" });
  ....
}

The first parameter to showCalendar is the id of the textfield, and the second parameter is the date format. Default format is '%Y-%m-%d'.

The addToHEAD function can be called from commonTagsHandler for adding the header to all pages, or from beforeEditHandler just for edit pages etc.

Installation Instructions

You do not need to install anything on the browser to use this plugin. These instructions are for the administrator who installs the plugin on the TWiki server.

  • For an automated installation, run the configure script and follow "Find More Extensions" in the in the Extensions section.

  • Or, follow these manual installation steps:
    • Download the ZIP file from the extension home on twiki.org (see below).
    • Unzip DatePickerPlugin.zip in your twiki installation directory.
    • Set the ownership of the extracted directories and files to the webserver user.
    • Install the dependencies (if any).

  • Plugin configuration and testing:
    • Run the configure script and enable the plugin in the Plugins section.
    • Configure additional plugin settings in the Extensions section if needed.
    • Test if the installation was successful using the examples provided.

  • An administrator can customize the appearance of the calendar by modifying {Plugins}{DatePickerPlugin} settings in the "Extensions" section of configure:
    Setting Default
    $TWiki::cfg{Plugins}{DatePickerPlugin}{Format} '%Y-%m-%d'
    $TWiki::cfg{Plugins}{DatePickerPlugin}{Lang} 'en'
    $TWiki::cfg{Plugins}{DatePickerPlugin}{Style} 'twiki'

Plugin Info

  • Set SHORTDESCRIPTION = Pop-up calendar with date picker, for use in TWiki forms, HTML forms and TWiki plugins

Author: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki.org
Copyright: © See the Mishoo documentation for Mishoo JSCalendar;
© 2012 Wave Systems Corp. for TWiki DatePickerPlugin rewrite;
© 2004-2013 TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny for TWiki DatePickerPlugin;
© 2004-2013 TWiki:TWiki.TWikiContributor for TWiki DatePickerPlugin
Sponsor: Wave Systems Corp.
License: GPL (GNU General Public License)
Dependencies: JQueryPlugin (pre-installed)
Version: 2013-09-04
Change History:  
2013-09-04: TWikibug:Item7333: Support more input field attributes, such as accesskey, pattern and required -- TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
2013-01-09: TWikibug:Item7091: Use TWISTY in detailed documentation section, installation instructions -- TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
2012-12-20: TWikibug:Item7077: Initial version, partly based on work of TWiki:Plugins.JSCalendarContrib -- TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
Home: http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/DatePickerPlugin
Feedback: http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/DatePickerPluginDev
Appraisal: http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/DatePickerPluginAppraisal

Related Topics: VarDATEPICKER, TWikiPreferences, TWikiForms, TWikiPlugins

Topic revision: r1 - 2013-09-04 - TWikiContributor
 
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