Easier date-time format setting

Apparently this is a resolved issue in Drupal 6.

http://drupal.org/node/105039

I'll mark this as fixed for now.

So should we consider this an open issue then? How would we change the user interface to make it feature complete, yet easier to use.

I think we should sit on this issue until Drupal 6 is in wider use. We'll have a fresh perspective then.

Moving issues from User experience project to Drupal core usability component.

I think the custom date format entry is fine, except that on 12 days out of the year the options are ambiguous. It might be better to use a fixed non-ambiguous date as an example rather than the current date. You can use some vanity date such as drupal's birthday.

The link to the PHP manual is useful, but it takes you away from the form and there's a lot of unnecessary information on the manual page. It would be better to have just the table with the codes/explanation/example and display that in a popup window, so the user doesn't have to remember the codes, keep going back and forth, or write them down.

well it looks like we've sit on this issue enough. Perhaps too long, since we are in the final stages of getting Drupal 7 done.

Drupal 7 has some improvements for handling time formats, the configuration page as seen in Seven look pretty good to me. Other than that I'm not sure what has changed for this feature.

To me, (disclaimer: I am a programmer), the default time settings + a easy to find and understand way of creating my own time formats is enough to satisfy my needs. However, I do see how a non-programmer or casual Drupal administrator would consider that learning how to create the unavailable time format that they want is too much work and a source of frustration.

Yet, I feel I have to degrade the Priority of this issue down to Minor as it isn't an issue that has gained a lot of traction and therefore may not be a common request of drupal users. Please correct me if I am wrong.

This is still cumbersome.

Changing the component so this can be tracked with some similar work, though it may not be in the datetime module proper.

Does anyone have examples of systems that do this well? Think we want to leverage a PIE solution for this, if one exists.

What if we had some sort of date "builder" tool, that was a little more hands-on? Maybe some drag and drop ordering (split up into parts, month/day/year/time), and then various formats of Month when clicked (Mar, March, 03). Possibly with the option to toggle to the standard text field where the user can enter in a unique format of the date they'd like to enter? Thoughts?

Agree with #10. In fact, D8 is more cumbersome than D7, where you at least had a list of formats in both dmy and mdy to choose from before you dived into custom date formats. Now, you have to figure out the PHP date formats yourself. Not site-builder friendly at all.

I like the suggestions in the original post. Provide some simple options for setting defaults, and allow these defaults to be augmented with custom formats if the defaults don't provide all that you need.

Thank you for sharing your idea for improving Drupal.

We are working to decide if this proposal meets the Criteria for evaluating proposed changes. There hasn't been any discussion here for over 8 years which suggests that this has either been implemented or there is no community support. Your thoughts on this will allow a decision to be made.

Since we need more information to move forward with this issue, the status is now Postponed (maintainer needs more info). If we don't receive additional information to help with the issue, it may be closed after three months.

Thanks!

I've started searching for already existing issues after I ran into inconsistencies with the "date and time" form display widget compared to the "select list" form display widget while reviewing #2896683: Add context to accessible names for datetime range field inputs

Two out of the three points suggested in the issue summary are already provided by the "select list" form display widget in the main branch. There the user is able to chose the "date part order", "time type", and the "time increments - only a setting for the delimiter is missing.

If you look at the "date and time" form display widget there are no settings available at all. The format on node edit forms is stuck to MM/DD/YYYY in a 12h format. That poses one problem, on ambiguous days like the third of april 2026 the format is 04/03/2026, even though the / provides the cue to the user it most likely is the US american date format with the month first, it still makes people from countries used to a different date form think and struggle. In particular if the user set the date and time formats to for example the norm european users are used to. the entry on node edit forms is in a differing format still. so it might also send users on an indefinite hunt how to alter those settings - in the current form that is not clear at all based on the user interface.

I would suggest to add widget setting to the "date and time" (datetime module), "datetime timestamp" (datetime module), and "date and time range" (datetime range module) form display widget, by adding the following options:

• Date part order (MM DD YY, DD MM YY, YY MM DD)
• Date delimiter (for example "/", ".", "-", or custom)
• Time type (12h or 24h)

For the "select list" form display widget settings for the "date and time" (datetime module) and "date and time range" (datetime range module) add the "Date delimiter (for example "/", ".", "-", or custom)" option as well to be in line with the aforementioned newly introduced widget settings.

And the micro copy for the labels of those options "Date part order", "Date delimiter" and "Time type" could be reconsidered and improved imho.

p.s. personally i would vote for setting the issue at the very least active again. I can also raise it in one of the next ux meetings to discuss the matter in a bigger group. but personally i think this is a serious matter where the current state has to be improved.