In drupal 4.7 new form API, how to make use of the new date type?

  $form['due_date'] = array(
    '#type' => 'date',
    '#default_value' => array('year' => 2006, 'month' => 12, 'day' => 3),
    '#title' => 'Due Date',
  );

Of course, I've hardcoded the values, so to actually figure out the date from 2 years ago you probably want to do this:

  $date = time() - 60 * 60 * 24 * 14; // 60 sec * 60 minutes * 24 hrs * 14 days = 2 weeks

  list($sec, $min, $hour, $day, $month, $year) = localtime($date);
  $form['due_date'] = array(
    '#type' => 'date',
    '#default_value' => array('year' => $year, 'month' => $month, 'day' => $day),
    '#title' => 'Due Date',
  );

** I haven't tested the localtime() call but I recall having used it in the past.
-- Merlin

[Point the finger: Assign Blame!]
[Read my writing: ehalseymiles.com]
[Read my Coding blog: Angry Donuts]

Hi, I installed Javascript Tools module and enabled jscalendar for some of my forms. Here some ideas for the conversion to timestamp when using jscalendar.

An important detail: #type must be textfield, I had troubles at first because foolishly declared #type as date.

These are just parts of code so you have to put them in context for your own code.

The first condition checks if this is a form for editing an existing record and retrieves the date set, if it's a new record then uses today's date.

I'm using a field called txnid (which is short for transaction id), what you may use depends on your table.

 if ($edit->txnid) {
    $default_date = date('m-d-Y',$edit->payment_date);
  } else {
    $default_date = date('m-d-Y');
  }

  $form['payment_date'] = array(
    '#type' => 'textfield',
    '#title' => t('Payment date'),
    '#default_value' => $default_date,
    '#attributes' => array('class' => 'jscalendar'),
    '#jscalendar_showsTime' => 'false',
    '#jscalendar_ifFormat' => '%m-%d-%Y',
    '#description' => t('Payment Date in mm-dd-yyyy format.')
  );

Then I have this function:

function format_timestamp($textdate, $lang = 'en') {
  if ($lang = 'en') {
    $day = substr($textdate,3,2);
    $month = substr($textdate,0,2) ;
    $year = substr($textdate,6,4);

    return mktime(0, 0, 0, $month, $day, $year);
  }
}

And use this for inserting:

db_query("INSERT INTO {ebook_transaction} (nid, payment_date) VALUES (%d, %d)", $form_values['nid'], format_timestamp($form_values['payment_date']));

and this for updating:

db_query("UPDATE {ebook_transaction} SET nid = %d, payment_date = %d WHERE txnid = %d", $form_values['nid'], format_timestamp($form_values['payment_date']), $txnid);

Of course this is SQL which will change for you particular table definition.

I hope it helps.

Cheers.

Alexis Bellido
Visit my new Drupal-based site on music, movies and books.

I had a similar problem. I have a module which wants to track date/time information. Just like drupal, I made the date/time field in the database an integer with the intention of holding a UTC timestamp, and then using the Drupal functions to properly display it for the users.

I ended up with the following functons:

// This function expects a UTC timestamp
function reg_convert_timestamp_to_date_array($timestamp = null)
{
  if(is_null($timestamp))
  {
    // get the current timestamp in UTC (not converted for the
    // server timezone)
    $timestamp = gmmktime();
  }

  // drupal's format_date function will return a date array
  // in the current user's timezone based on a UTC timstamp
  $day = format_date($timestamp, 'custom', 'j');
  $month = format_date($timestamp, 'custom', 'n');
  $year = format_date($timestamp, 'custom', 'Y');
  return array('day'=> $day,'month'=>$month,'year'=>$year);
}

// take a date array in the current user's timezone and
// convert to a UTC time stamp. Since the date array will not
// include the hour, minute, second - add the current hour, minute
// and second in the timestamp creation
function reg_convert_date_array_to_timestamp($date)
{
  // how many seconds passed midnight is it in UTC? 
  $ts = gmmktime();
  $hour = gmdate('H',$ts);
  $minute = gmdate('i',$ts);
  $second = gmdate('s',$ts);
  $seconds_passed_midnight = ($hour * 60 * 60) + ($minute * 60) + $second;

  // Get the drupal user's timezone offset
  $offset = reg_get_user_timezone();

  // we can't use mktime because it will do conversions based on the
  // timezone of the server. We want conversion to happen based on the
  // timezone of the drupal installation *or* the user's settings - 
  // because it is those settings that will govern how the date widget
  // is created to start with
  $user_timestamp = gmmktime(0,0,0,$date['month'],$date['day'],$date['year']);

  // now adjust for the user's time zone to get the true UTC time
  $utc_timestamp = $user_timestamp + $offset;
  // now add the hours passed midnight to the UTC timestamp:
  return $utc_timestamp + $seconds_passed_midnight;
}

function reg_get_user_timezone()
{
  // taken from the drupal format_date function
  global $user;
  if (variable_get('configurable_timezones', 1) && $user->uid && strlen($user->timezone))
  {
    $timezone = $user->timezone;
  }
  else
  {
    $timezone = variable_get('date_default_timezone', 0);
  }
  return $timezone;
}

Then, in the form:

    $form['admin']['payment_date'] = array(
     '#type' => 'date',
     '#title' => t('Payment date'),
    );

And in the submit function:

$ts = reg_convert_date_array_to_timestamp($form_values['admin']['payment_date']);