HTML5 date input

The HTML5 specification calls for an input element which supports date and time input types. While this would be an excellent solution rather than needing to rely upon a Javascript library for the calendar picker (such as Editor's built in datetime field type), only Chrome and Edge currently support these input options. IE, Firefox and Safari do not currently enjoy support for these elements.

Fortunately, if we specify an input field has date type, if the browser doesn't support it, it will just fall back to being a regular text input. User's won't see the calendar when using a browser that doesn't support this input type, but they will still be able to type the date in.

The date field type will automatically use an HTML date input field - unless jQuery UI's date picker is available on the page, in which case that will be used.

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:

var editor; // use a global for the submit and return data rendering in the examples $(document).ready(function() { editor = new $.fn.dataTable.Editor( { ajax: '../php/dates.php', table: '#example', fields: [ { label: 'First name:', name: 'first_name' }, { label: 'Last name:', name: 'last_name' }, { label: 'Updated date:', name: 'updated_date', type: 'date' }, { label: 'Registered date:', name: 'registered_date', type: 'date' } ] } ); $('#example').DataTable( { dom: 'Bfrtip', ajax: '../php/dates.php', columns: [ { data: 'first_name' }, { data: 'last_name' }, { data: 'updated_date' }, { data: 'registered_date' } ], select: true, buttons: [ { extend: 'create', editor: editor }, { extend: 'edit', editor: editor }, { extend: 'remove', editor: editor } ] } ); } );

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 processing for this table is shown below. Please note that this is just an example script using PHP. Server-side processing scripts can be written in any language, using the protocol described in the DataTables documentation.

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