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Web DatePicker Control

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29 Mar 20043 min read 586.1K   5.1K   76   229
Article on how I built my Date Picker Control.

Updates

Thanks to Camilo Orozco for providing me with the translated uncompiled C# code. The .cs file had been added to the source code zip. Sorry it's taken so long to post.

Introduction

One of the most common causes of application failure, especially for new developers, is handling date input from the user. If it's in the wrong format and you try to write it to the database, then the database command fails. If the user switches the day and month then your date could be wrong, even if you're using a regular expression validator (i.e. 01/02/2004 could be 2 January 2004 or 1 February 2004).

To get around this, I used to wire a server side calendar control to the textbox onClick event, and launch it in a new window, forcing the user to select a date, then return the date in the format of my choice to the textbox. But while this is all well and good for simple web apps, this week I needed the same functionality to be launched from inside a server component I was writing.

Background

I remember that in the old days of ASP, there was a lengthy JavaScript solution we used to use, that would be perfect for what I was trying to do now. I asked a few people, and a lot of guys sent me the same code back. Full credit must go to Tan Ling Wee for writing the original JavaScript code, even though I've never met him (or her - not quite sure), and to all the people who passed it on until it eventually arrived in my email box. Now here was a piece of code perfect for what I needed to do, but it's over 600 lines long, and there's no way in hell I was going to manually reformat it line by line so that I could render it to the client. So, as any really lazy developer does things, I wrote my own app to process the JavaScript and return a code block that I could simply copy and paste into Visual Studio (will write another article on this, and upload the app for use by all). After that, it was simply a matter of writing a new class that inherited from the control, added properties to make the control customizable, and compiled.

Using the code

If you're using Visual Studio, you can simply add the control to the Toolbox, and then drag and drop it into your apps. For everyone else, first copy the DLL to the bin directory of your project. Then, on your aspx page, you'll first need to register the component as follows:

ASP.NET
<%@ Register TagPrefix="cc1" 
Namespace="DatePicker.iX.Controls"
    Assembly="DatePicker" %>

Then place the control on the page like so:

ASP.NET
<cc1:DatePicker id="DatePicker1" runat="server"
  imgDirectory="/WebApplication6/img/" DateType="dd mmm yyyy">
</cc1:DatePicker>

You'll notice the properties imgDirectory and DateType. imgDirectory is the path to the directory where the control images needed can be found (images included in the download files). DateType is the format in which the date should be returned. "dd mmm yyyy" writes out the full date, e.g. "01 January 2003", but this can be changed to any format by changing this property (e.g. "dd/mm/yyyy" or "mm/dd/yyyy"). There is also a CssClass property, which sets the CssClass for the textbox, and a Text property, to set the start text to be displayed in the textbox.

License

This article has no explicit license attached to it but may contain usage terms in the article text or the download files themselves. If in doubt please contact the author via the discussion board below.

A list of licenses authors might use can be found here


Written By
Web Developer
South Africa South Africa
Doug is an Applications Integrator for an online gaming company. He has been programming for 9 years, and has been working with the .NET framework since the beginning of 2003, in both VB.NET & C#.

Comments and Discussions

 
GeneralSetting the TextBox Width Pin
Dan Colasanti15-Oct-04 10:48
professionalDan Colasanti15-Oct-04 10:48 
GeneralRe: Setting the TextBox Width Pin
Dan Colasanti16-Oct-04 12:33
professionalDan Colasanti16-Oct-04 12:33 
GeneralFix for Opera 7.X Compatibility Pin
Dan Colasanti15-Oct-04 10:39
professionalDan Colasanti15-Oct-04 10:39 
GeneralGot a tip: textbox and validator in one Pin
Danny Alvares4-Oct-04 16:28
Danny Alvares4-Oct-04 16:28 
GeneralRe: Got a tip: textbox and validator in one Pin
Dan Colasanti16-Oct-04 12:29
professionalDan Colasanti16-Oct-04 12:29 
GeneralRe: Got a tip: textbox and validator in one Pin
doco au24-Oct-04 1:35
doco au24-Oct-04 1:35 
GeneralRe: Got a tip: textbox and validator in one Pin
jjborges21-May-07 8:28
jjborges21-May-07 8:28 
QuestionPlease Tell me why? Pin
Pham Ngoc Quyen20-Sep-04 23:09
Pham Ngoc Quyen20-Sep-04 23:09 
AnswerRe: Please Tell me why? Pin
Doug Wilson21-Sep-04 1:07
Doug Wilson21-Sep-04 1:07 
GeneralRe: Please Tell me why? Pin
Pham Ngoc Quyen21-Sep-04 8:05
Pham Ngoc Quyen21-Sep-04 8:05 
GeneralRe: Please Tell me why? Pin
Doug Wilson21-Sep-04 20:43
Doug Wilson21-Sep-04 20:43 
GeneralRe: Please Tell me why? Pin
Sbotros20-Dec-04 18:08
Sbotros20-Dec-04 18:08 
GeneralgetElementByID error Pin
kjtan14-Sep-04 19:32
kjtan14-Sep-04 19:32 
QuestionProblem???? Pin
bevans19752-Sep-04 10:51
bevans19752-Sep-04 10:51 
AnswerRe: Problem???? Pin
Doug Wilson2-Sep-04 20:50
Doug Wilson2-Sep-04 20:50 
GeneralRe: Problem???? Pin
Anonymous3-Sep-04 4:42
Anonymous3-Sep-04 4:42 
AnswerRe: Problem???? Pin
an_phu1-Sep-05 16:22
an_phu1-Sep-05 16:22 
GeneralImages are not working Pin
jmg578515-Jul-04 10:09
jmg578515-Jul-04 10:09 
GeneralRe: Images are not working Pin
RichBaker20-Jul-04 3:12
sussRichBaker20-Jul-04 3:12 
GeneralRe: Images are not working Pin
Kasie17-May-05 5:30
Kasie17-May-05 5:30 
GeneralThanks for the control! Pin
svm1724-May-04 12:11
svm1724-May-04 12:11 
GeneralRe: Thanks for the control! Pin
Doug Wilson25-May-04 1:58
Doug Wilson25-May-04 1:58 
GeneralDatePicker Control Pin
ssircar197111-Feb-05 9:12
ssircar197111-Feb-05 9:12 
GeneralControl Placement Pin
twehle4-May-04 10:27
twehle4-May-04 10:27 
GeneralRe: Control Placement Pin
Doug Wilson4-May-04 21:44
Doug Wilson4-May-04 21:44 

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