use a startdate on a <cfinput type= "datefield"> in ColdFusion
I am using the <cfinput type="datefield"> and I need to limit the dates that can be chosen. I cannot allow a date that can be selected in the past. Any help here?
Thanks!
Answer
Well you have two options validating it strictly server side or additionally adding a client side javascript check.
For the serverside, your cfm processing page could use the DateCompare function like so:
<cfif DateCompare(Date1,Date2) EQUAL -1>
<!--- Date 1 < Date 2 --->
<cfelseif DateCompare(Date1,Date2) EQUAL 0>
<!--- Date 1 = Date 2 --->
<cfelseif DateCompare(Date1,Date2) EQUAL 1>
<!--- Date 1 > Date 2 --->
</cfif>
Documentation and sample code is available for this function at: http://livedocs.adobe.com/coldfusion/8/htmldocs/help.html?content=functions_m-r_11.html
Another post suggested using the range functionality, however I was not able to get this to work because the Adobe documentation said it was only supported on type numeric.
Alternatively you can use javascript to check if the date is within range live on the page:
<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
function withinRange(submittedDate) {
var start = Date.parse("08/10/2009");
var end = Date.parse("09/11/2009");
var userDate = Date.parse(document.getElementById('leaveDate').value);
var previousDate = document.getElementById('calendarWorkaround').value;
if (!isNaN(userDate) && ( previousDate != userDate)) {
document.getElementById('calendarWorkaround').value = userDate;
if (start <= userDate && end >= userDate) {
alert("Your date is correct!");
} else {
alert("Date is incorrect.");
}
}
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<cfform name="testing" id="vacationForm"action="testprocess">
<cfinput name="date" type="datefield" id="leaveDate">
<input type="hidden" name="workaround" id="calendarWorkaround" value="-1">
</cfform>
<!--- To get around onChange bug with cfinput type datefield --->
<cfajaxproxy bind="javaScript:withinRange({leaveDate})">
</body>
</html>
Now I would use the onChange attribute for cfinput on the datefield, however there is a bug that it does not call the javascript function that seems to be documented on a couple of other pages online. The workaround that I used was the cfajaxproxy call with the bind attribute. If you are using cfeclipse, it will give you an error that the syntax is not correct however it worked fine for me.
The hidden input type is necessary because with the cfajaxproxy tag, everytime you click the calendar icon it will call the javascript function which is not what we want. So I store the last value chosen by the user (or -1 on page load) so that the javascript to check if it is within range is only executed if the value changes. It is a bit of a hack, however the implementation of <cfinput type="datefield"> does not work as documented.
You can also modify this example so that coldfusion dynamical generates the start date and end date so it is not hard coded.
Just remember that whichever way you choose, you should always check the value server side just in case the user has javascript disabled.