This feature is probably one of the most sought after in any portal and there are several free downloadable widgets that provide features to disable dates in a popup calendar based on rules.
Looking at the properties of Formatted Date Range Validator, one would think “Ah!, cool, now I can specify the range of dates that user will have access to in the pop up calendar”. Unfortunately, it does not disable the dates outside the range, but throws a Validation message upon submitting the form. You would say, “Well, so be it, even if it is not proactive, atleast it tells the user that date selected is out of range”.
Now, when you look at the options to choose Min and Max Dates, the option selector is a Calendar asking you to choose a specific Date!!!
The least one would expect from a Date function is that it is configurable for a run time value rather than a design time.
Fortunately, you can specify a value binding expression as well for min and max values if you feel that the date picker does not allow you to provide run time values. I must be very impatient coz I tried all ( or so I think ) java date format and parsing functions, but the Validator simply refuses to accept anything.
- Should the value be a Date type or a String type?
What format should it be in?
Should we specify a format or does it take the default format?
I looked for any client side javascript functions for the pop up calendar as well, but couldn’t find any.
Also, I noticed that the validator behaves in a way that you have to necessarily specify the Max Date as well if you choose a Min Date (using the Date picker), else it complains.
Apologies, if I seem to be too whining, but the client simply expects that CAF provides you all the tools to minimize any coding and this is an easy feature that can be done in minutes if not in seconds.
Well, I have reverted to using Javascripts to validate the date and display a message.
Hopefully someone who has done this can show us that we are walking in the wrong path.
Cheers !!!
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