Branched off from #1896196: Change date format iso to csv

As of the most recent dev, items with no date value are assigned the value "1/1/1970" (the Unix epoch) in the process of converting them to CSV format (see http://drupal.org/node/1896196#comment-7245722). The problem with this solution is that it doesn't give the user any indication that things are going to get weird. Folks who aren't developers (and some who are), don't necessarily see "1/1/1970" as a red flag. It would be more user-friendly to at least give some sort of notice that "hey, you're asking me to place things on a timeline with no date!" as opposed to quietly making decisions that the user might not expect.

One possible solution would be to filter out empty dates long before the date formatting process, and give a notice in the message area:

The following content does not have date values assigned and can not be displayed on the timeline:

Please edit this content to give it dates or add a filter to the view to exclude content with no date values.

Comments

operinko’s picture

operinko commented

I originally decided to go with unix epoch, because that's what TimelineJS does when it's presented with an incorrect time.

But, your proposal could be a good alternative.

operinko’s picture

operinko commented
Status: Active » Needs review

Just committed a change to the empty date handling.
It will now drupal_set_message an error with node ID and field name, while hiding the node from the timeline.

operinko’s picture

operinko commented
Status: Needs review » Fixed

Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)

Automatically closed -- issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.