Formatted dates (server-side)

Editor's datetime field type makes entering date and time information simple, but to increase user friendliness you may wish to use a custom date format (rather than the default ISO 8601 format) - this can be done with the momentjs library and specifying a displayFormat option for the field.

This example shows two different date fields which are displayed using different formats - the first is in the US m/d/y format while the second is a more verbose format (it also uses keyInput: false to disallow users from typing the input). The data loaded from the server (and submitted to it on create / edit) is in the format specified by the displayFormat option (this parameter is required so Editor's datetime input type can parse and understand the date). If the data to and from the server is in a different format from what you want to display see the formatting - client-side example.

This example also makes use of the DataTable.datetime() method to register a date format to allow it to be ordered correctly in the table.

First name Last name Updated date Registered date
  • Javascript
  • HTML
  • CSS
  • Ajax
  • Server-side script
  • Comments

The Javascript shown below is used to initialise the table shown in this example:

// Register date formats to allow DataTables sorting of the dates DataTable.datetime('M/D/YYYY'); DataTable.datetime('dddd D MMMM YYYY'); var editor = new DataTable.Editor({ ajax: '../php/dates.php?format=custom', fields: [ { label: 'First name:', name: 'first_name' }, { label: 'Last name:', name: 'last_name' }, { label: 'Updated date:', name: 'updated_date', type: 'datetime', def: function () { return new Date(); }, format: 'M/D/YYYY', fieldInfo: 'US style m/d/y format' }, { label: 'Registered date:', name: 'registered_date', type: 'datetime', def: function () { return new Date(); }, format: 'dddd D MMMM YYYY', fieldInfo: 'Verbose date format', keyInput: false } ], table: '#example' }); $('#example').DataTable({ ajax: '../php/dates.php?format=custom', columns: [ { data: 'first_name' }, { data: 'last_name' }, { data: 'updated_date' }, { data: 'registered_date' } ], layout: { topStart: { buttons: [ { extend: 'create', editor: editor }, { extend: 'edit', editor: editor }, { extend: 'remove', editor: editor } ] } }, select: true });
// Register date formats to allow DataTables sorting of the dates DataTable.datetime('M/D/YYYY'); DataTable.datetime('dddd D MMMM YYYY'); const editor = new DataTable.Editor({ ajax: '../php/dates.php?format=custom', fields: [ { label: 'First name:', name: 'first_name' }, { label: 'Last name:', name: 'last_name' }, { label: 'Updated date:', name: 'updated_date', type: 'datetime', def: () => new Date(), format: 'M/D/YYYY', fieldInfo: 'US style m/d/y format' }, { label: 'Registered date:', name: 'registered_date', type: 'datetime', def: () => new Date(), format: 'dddd D MMMM YYYY', fieldInfo: 'Verbose date format', keyInput: false } ], table: '#example' }); const table = new DataTable('#example', { ajax: '../php/dates.php?format=custom', columns: [ { data: 'first_name' }, { data: 'last_name' }, { data: 'updated_date' }, { data: 'registered_date' } ], layout: { topStart: { buttons: [ { extend: 'create', editor: editor }, { extend: 'edit', editor: editor }, { extend: 'remove', editor: editor } ] } }, select: true });

In addition to the above code, the following Javascript library files are loaded for use in this example:

    The HTML shown below is the raw HTML table element, before it has been enhanced by DataTables:

    This example uses a little bit of additional CSS beyond what is loaded from the library files (below), in order to correctly display the table. The additional CSS used is shown below:

    The following CSS library files are loaded for use in this example to provide the styling of the table:

      This table loads data by Ajax. The latest data that has been loaded is shown below. This data will update automatically as any additional data is loaded.

      The script used to perform the server-side interaction for this demo is shown below. This server uses PHP, so the PHP script is shown, however our download packages include the equivalent script for other platforms, including .NET and Node.js. Server-side scripts can be written in any language, using the protocol described in the Editor documentation.

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