Change field to Date format

janet287

I've got 2 separate sections of code below that refer to a "Remarks" field. Right now this field is just a text string. I'd need to reformat the Remarks field as a date field. Can anyone tell me how to change the code below to do it?
Thanks.

$table->data[$student->id][] = '<input type="text" name="remarks'.$student->id.'" size="" value="'.($att ? $att->remarks : '').'">';

if ($form = data_submitted()) {
$students = array(); // stores students ids
$formarr = (array)$form;
$i = 0;
foreach($formarr as $key => $value) {
if(substr($key,0,7) == 'student' && $value !== '') {
$students[$i] = new Object();
$sid = substr($key,7); // gets student id from radiobutton name
$students[$i]->studentid = $sid;
$students[$i]->status = $value;
$students[$i]->remarks = array_key_exists('remarks'.$sid, $formarr) ? $formarr['remarks'.$sid] : '';
$students[$i]->attsid = $attsid;
$i++;
}
}

kkobashi

Look at the time and date functions in PHP:
http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.datetime.php

Your question is vague because you arent telling us what is stored in the $remark field. Do you want to store a string in the $remark field containing time/date information? Where are you getting the time/date?

Also, you are confusing yourself, future programmers who have to look at your code to understand it, etc. if you don't change the field name to be more inline with what is in there. Why not just rename it to $dateTime and figure out what date/time string format you want to store in there (i.e. month day, year HH:MM:SS, etc.)

janet287

Thanks for responding. I've done some more work and now I've narrowed it down to this expression. I think this is working but it is an input field that appears on the screen. Right now the user can type anything they want in there. I want to force them to enter the date in a mm/dd/yy format. Is there a way to do that? Add an if statement to this logic perhaps forces the input to be rejected unless it is formatted correctly? My PHP skills are limited, so any help would be great.

$table->data[$student->id][] = '<input type="date("M/d/Y")" name="last_attend_date'.$student->id.'" size="" value="'.($att ? $att->last_attend_date : '').'">';
}

Weedpacket

<input type="date("M/d/Y")">

Quite apart from the quotes breaking things, this is a meaningless type for an input field to have. HTML doesn't have "date" fields; if you want to enforce some particular format you'll need to write some JavaScript to check the contents of the field before the form is submitted, and some PHP to check the format again when the server receives it.

bradgrafelman

Alternatively, the best solution IMHO is to do something like so:

Month: <input type="text" name="last_attend_month"><br>
Day: <input type="text" name="last_attend_day"><br>
Year: <input type="text" name="last_attend_year">

Then it's a simple matter of zero-padding and/or expanding a 2-digit year to a 4-digit year.

Weedpacket

bradgrafelman wrote:
Alternatively, the best solution IMHO is to do something like so:

You raise a good point about accessibility, there. If you're going to use JavaScript for client-side validation of a date field, you might as well go all the way and provide a JavaScript-driven datepicker widget that fills the field in. The field would still be needed in case JavaScript isn't running - which is always why the server-side validation is also necessary.

janet287

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions. The application I am using has a date selector I've found that I can use. But, my PHP skills are horrible and I am not sure how it integrate the call into the existing code. Does anyone have suggestions?

Here is the existing code:
$table->data[$student->id][] = '<input type="text" name="last_attend_date'.$student->id.'" size="" value="'.($att ? $att->last_attend_date : '').'">';

Here is the date selector logic used in another part of the application:
$mform->addElement('date_time_selector', 'assesstimestart', get_string('from'));

Here is the definition for the feature:
date_selector ([string $elementName = null], [mixed $elementLabel = null], [array $options = array()], [mixed $attributes = null])

Any ideas on how to combine these? Sorry, I know this is a sketchy question...