jquery datepicker not working on dynamically created html

Question

I'm creating dynamically a couple of div with inner controls. Two of those controls should be datepickers. But for some reason they are not showing (only input text are shown) It works if I create static html, but not when I'm using dynamic one.

This is the code I'm using to generate the HTML (I can see the div)

var ShowContainerDiv = document.createElement('DIV');

var btnShowDiv = document.createElement('DIV');
btnShowDiv.id = 'btnShowDiv ';
btnShowDiv.title = 'Change';
btnShowDiv.index = 120;

var lblShow = document.createElement('label')
lblShow.htmlFor = "btnShowDiv";
lblShow.appendChild(document.createTextNode('Show'));
btnShowDiv.appendChild(lblShow );
btnShowDiv.onclick = function () {
    dropdown.style.visibility = "visible";
};

var dropdown = document.createElement('DIV');
dropdown.style.backgroundColor = 'white';
dropdown.style.borderStyle = 'solid';
dropdown.style.borderWidth = '2px';
dropdown.style.cursor = 'pointer';
dropdown.style.textAlign = 'left';
dropdown.style.width = '150px';

var chkRed = document.createElement("input");
chkRed.type = "checkbox";
chkRed.id = "chkRed";
chkRed.value = "Red";
chkRed.checked = false;
var lblRed = document.createElement('label')
lblRed.htmlFor = "chkRed";
lblRed.style.color = "#F00";
lblRed.appendChild(document.createTextNode('Red'));

var chkYellow = document.createElement("input");
chkYellow.type = "checkbox";
chkYellow.id = "chkYellow";
chkYellow.value = "Yellow";
chkYellow.checked = false;
var lblYellow = document.createElement('label')
lblYellow.htmlFor = "chkYellow";
lblYellow.style.color = "#FF0";
lblYellow.appendChild(document.createTextNode('Yellow'));

var chkGreen = document.createElement("input");
chkGreen.type = "checkbox";
chkGreen.id = "chkGreen";
chkGreen.value = "Green";
chkGreen.checked = false;
var lblGreen = document.createElement('label')
lblGreen.htmlFor = "chkGreen";
lblGreen.style.color = "#0F0";
lblGreen.appendChild(document.createTextNode('Green'));

var dateFrom = document.createElement("input");
dateFrom.id = "txtDateFrom";
dateFrom.type = "text";
dateFrom.className = "datepicker";
dateFrom.style.width = "70px";
dateFrom.readonly = "readonly";
var lblDateFrom = document.createElement('label')
lblDateFrom.htmlFor = "txtDateFrom";
lblDateFrom.appendChild(document.createTextNode('From'));

var dateTo = document.createElement("input");
dateTo.id = "txtDateTo";
dateTo.type = "text";
dateTo.className = "datepicker";
dateTo.style.width = "70px";
dateTo.readonly = "readonly";
var lblDateTo = document.createElement('label')
lblDateTo.htmlFor = "txtDateTo";
lblDateTo.appendChild(document.createTextNode('To'));

var btnDone = document.createElement("input");
btnDone.type = "button";
btnDone.name = "btnDone";
btnDone.value = "Done";
btnDone.onclick = function () {
    dropdown.style.visibility = "hidden";
};

dropdown.appendChild(chkRed);
dropdown.appendChild(lblRed);
dropdown.appendChild(document.createElement("BR"));
dropdown.appendChild(chkYellow);
dropdown.appendChild(lblYellow);
dropdown.appendChild(document.createElement("BR"));
dropdown.appendChild(chkGreen);
dropdown.appendChild(lblGreen);
dropdown.appendChild(document.createElement("BR"));
dropdown.appendChild(dateFrom);
dropdown.appendChild(document.createElement("BR"));
dropdown.appendChild(dateTo);
dropdown.appendChild(document.createElement("BR"));
dropdown.appendChild(btnDone);

ShowContainerDiv.appendChild(btnShowDiv);
ShowContainerDiv.appendChild(dropdown);

g.event.addDomListener(btnShowDiv, 'click', function () {
    dropdown.visible = true;
    dropdown.style.visibility = "visible";
});

g.event.addDomListener(btnDone, 'click', function () {
    dropdown.visible = false;
    dropdown.style.visibility = "hidden";
});

map.controls[g.ControlPosition.TOP_RIGHT].push(ShowContainerDiv);

Then in a .js file I have this (I checked and I'm including the file)

$(document).ready(function () {
    $(".datepicker").datepicker({
        dateFormat: 'yy/m/d',
        firstDay: 1,
        changeMonth: true,
        changeYear: true,
        showOn: 'both',
        autosize: true,
        buttonText: "Select date",
        buttonImage: '../Content/images/calendar.png',
        buttonImageOnly: true
    });
});

Why the datepicker is not showing up?

Answer 1

When you write

$(document).ready(function () {
    $(".datepicker").datepicker({...});
});

This fragment is getting executed right after the page has loaded. Therefore, your dynamic datepickers are not there yet. You need to call $(aSuitableSelector).datepicker(...) on each newly-inserted element. First, use a var to hold your options:

var datePickerOptions = {
    dateFormat: 'yy/m/d',
    firstDay: 1,
    changeMonth: true,
    changeYear: true,
    // ...
}

This allows you to write

 $(document).ready(function () {
    $(".datepicker").datepicker(datePickerOptions);
 });

and to write

 // right after appending dateFrom to the document ...
 $(dateFrom).datepicker(datePickerOptions);

 //...

 // right after appending dateTo ...
 $(dateTo).datepicker(datePickerOptions);

You can also use JQuery's ability to listen to DOM changes to avoid having to apply JS magic to newly-inserted elements -- but I do not think it is worth it.