Jquery UI datepicker. Disable array of Dates

Question

I have been trying to search for a solution to my Jquery ui datepicker problem and I'm having no luck. Here's what I'm trying to do...

I have an application where i'm doing some complex PHP to return a JSON array of dates that I want BLOCKED out of the Jquery UI Datepicker. I am returning this array:

["2013-03-14","2013-03-15","2013-03-16"]

Is there not a simple way to simply say: block these dates from the datepicker?

I've read the UI documentation and I see nothing that helps me. Anyone have any ideas?

Answer 1

You can use beforeShowDay to do this

The following example disables dates 14 March 2013 thru 16 March 2013

var array = ["2013-03-14","2013-03-15","2013-03-16"]

$('input').datepicker({
    beforeShowDay: function(date){
        var string = jQuery.datepicker.formatDate('yy-mm-dd', date);
        return [ array.indexOf(string) == -1 ]
    }
});

Demo: Fiddle