• clicking a date field pops up a YUI Calendar control to change the date
• the date field is made read only by this code
• pressing ESC while a Calendar is displaying dismisses it
• pressing DEL while a Calendar is displaying clears the input field
• there is an Input field for the start date and an Input field for the end date
• you cannot make the end date before the start date, and you cannot make the start date after the end date
• that the dates are optional
• dates are displayed in the standard ISO YYYY-MM-DD format

This code sample demonstrates:

• the YUI Calendar control, including
  • setting the date in the control
  • getting the date from the control (after selection)
  • dynamically displaying and hiding the control
  • manipulating ISO dates into the format that YUI requires
  • setting min and max dates on the fly – specifically, this shows you how to manipulate YUI “config” parameters which the documentation implies are readonly (look for functions in source code named like configMinDate)
  • simple YUI animations (to show that a field value has been changed)
  • detecting keystrokes (DEL and ESC) using YUI
  • adding functionality using Javascript, after the DOM loads

  This assumes:

  • you have an Input field for the start date with DOM id="id_event_start"
  • you have an Input field for the end date with DOM id="id_event_end"
  • that the Form (or a parent element of the Form, up to Body) has DOM class="yui-skin-sam"

  Add the following Script inclusions to your HTML (note: not all of these are probably needed, and there’s more efficient ways to include YUI JS, especially for production deployments):

  <script type="text/javascript"
   src="http://yui.yahooapis.com/2.8.0r4/build/json/json-min.js"></script>
  <script type="text/javascript"
   src="http://yui.yahooapis.com/2.8.0r4/build/event/event-min.js"></script>
  <script type="text/javascript"
   src="http://yui.yahooapis.com/2.8.0r4/build/connection/connection-min.js"></script>
  <script type="text/javascript"
   src="http://yui.yahooapis.com/2.8.0r4/build/dom/dom-min.js"></script>
  <script type="text/javascript"
   src="http://yui.yahooapis.com/2.8.0r4/build/element/element-min.js"></script>
  <script type="text/javascript"
   src="http://yui.yahooapis.com/2.8.0r4/build/button/button-min.js"></script>
  <script type="text/javascript"
   src="http://yui.yahooapis.com/2.8.0r4/build/dragdrop/dragdrop-min.js"></script>
  <script type="text/javascript"
   src="http://yui.yahooapis.com/2.8.0r4/build/container/container-min.js"></script>
  <script type="text/javascript"
   src="http://yui.yahooapis.com/2.8.0r4/build/yuiloader/yuiloader-min.js"></script>
  <script type="text/javascript"
   src="http://yui.yahooapis.com/2.8.0r4/build/container/container_core-min.js"></script>
  <script type="text/javascript"
   src="http://yui.yahooapis.com/2.8.0r4/build/calendar/calendar-min.js"></script>
  <script type="text/javascript"
   src="http://yui.yahooapis.com/2.8.0r4/build/animation/animation-min.js"></script>
  

  Add the following CSS inclusions to your HTML:

  <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
   href="http://yui.yahooapis.com/2.8.0r4/build/button/assets/skins/sam/button.css" />
  <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
   href="http://yui.yahooapis.com/2.8.0r4/build/container/assets/skins/sam/container.css" />
  <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
   href="http://yui.yahooapis.com/2.8.0r4/build/calendar/assets/skins/sam/calendar.css" />
  

  Add the following CSS to your HTML:

  <style type="text/css">
  
  #id_calendar {
   position: absolute;
   z-index: 15;
  }
  .yui-skin-sam .yui-panel .bd, .yui-skin-sam .yui-panel .ft {
   background-color:#FFFFFF;
  }
  </style>
  

  Add the following HTML fragment:

  <div id="id_calendar_wrapper">
   <div id="id_calendar"></div>
  </div>
  

  And finally, here’s the JS that makes it all work

  <script type="text/javascript">
  calendar_js = {
   c : null,
   start_e : null,
   end_e : null,
   current_e : 0,
   supress : 0,
  
   create : function() {
   calendar_js.start_e = YAHOO.util.Dom.get("id_event_start");
   calendar_js.end_e = YAHOO.util.Dom.get("id_event_end");
  
   YAHOO.util.Event.addListener(calendar_js.start_e, "click", calendar_js.onclick, this);
   YAHOO.util.Event.addListener(calendar_js.end_e, "click", calendar_js.onclick, this);
  
   YAHOO.util.Dom.get(calendar_js.start_e).readOnly = true;
   YAHOO.util.Dom.get(calendar_js.end_e).readOnly = true;
  
   (new YAHOO.util.KeyListener(document, { keys:27 }, { fn:calendar_js.onesc })).enable();
   (new YAHOO.util.KeyListener(document, { keys:8 }, { fn:calendar_js.ondel })).enable();
   },
  
   onesc : function() {
   calendar_js.current_e = null;
   if (calendar_js.c) {
   calendar_js.c.hide();
   }
  
   },
  
   ondel : function() {
   if (calendar_js.current_e) {
   calendar_js.current_e.value = "";
   calendar_js.current_e = null;
   }
   if (calendar_js.c) {
   calendar_js.c.hide();
   }
  
   },
  
   toydate : function(d) {
   if (!d) {
   return null;
   }
   if (d.value) {
   d = d.value;
   }
   if (d && d.length) {
   d = d.replace(/(\d\d\d\d)-(\d\d)-(\d\d)/, "$2/$3/$1");
   if (d.indexOf('/') == 2) {
   return d;
   }
   }
   return null;
   },
  
   onclick : function(evt, obj) {
   var e_e = YAHOO.util.Event.getTarget(evt);
  
   if (calendar_js.c == null) {
   calendar_js.c = new YAHOO.widget.Calendar(null, "id_calendar");
   calendar_js.c.render(); 
  
   calendar_js.c.selectEvent.subscribe(calendar_js.ondate, calendar_js.c, true);
   }
  
   var c_e = YAHOO.util.Dom.get("id_calendar");
   if (calendar_js.current_e == e_e) {
   calendar_js.current_e = null;
   calendar_js.c.hide();
   } else {
   YAHOO.util.Dom.setAttribute(c_e, "display", "block");
   calendar_js.current_e = e_e;
  
   var region = YAHOO.util.Region.getRegion(e_e);
  
   calendar_js.c.show();
  
   if (e_e.value.length) {
   var d = calendar_js.toydate(e_e);
   if (d) {
   calendar_js.supress = 1;
   calendar_js.c.select(d);
   }
   }
  
   if (e_e == calendar_js.start_e) {
   var d = calendar_js.toydate(calendar_js.end_e);
   if (d) {
   calendar_js.c.configMaxDate(null, [ d ], null);
   calendar_js.c.configMinDate(null, [ "01/01/1970" ], null);
   }
   } else {
   var d = calendar_js.toydate(calendar_js.start_e);
   if (d) {
   calendar_js.c.configMinDate(null, [ d ], null);
   calendar_js.c.configMaxDate(null, [ "01/01/2200" ], null);
   }
   }
  
   calendar_js.c.render();
   YAHOO.util.Dom.setXY(c_e, [ region.right + 2, region.top ]);
   }
   },
  
   ondate : function(type, args, obj) {
   if (calendar_js.supress) {
   calendar_js.supress = 0;
   return;
   }
  
   var date = this.toDate(args[0][0]);
  
   var year = "" + date.getFullYear();
   var month = "" + ( 1 + date.getMonth() );
   while (month.length < 2) {
   month = "0" + month;
   }
   var day = "" + date.getDate();
   while (day.length < 2) {
   day = "0" + day;
   }
  
   var animate = new YAHOO.util.ColorAnim(calendar_js.current_e,
   {backgroundColor: { from: '#ffff99', to: '#FFFFFF' } }
   );
   animate.duration = 0.75;
   animate.method = YAHOO.util.Easing.easeOut;
   animate.animate(); 
  
   calendar_js.current_e.value = year + "-" + month + "-" + day;
   calendar_js.c.hide();
   calendar_js.current_e = null;
   },
  
   end : 0
  };
  YAHOO.util.Event.onDOMReady(calendar_js.oninit);
  </script>
  

  Notes:

  • no apologies for verboseness – I write code so I can understand it in 24 months time
  • my original code is a lot more “tabby” – I flattened to a single space so they’d fit in the space constraints here
  • the code should be fairly self explanatory if you step through it – the hard stuff is probably YUI weirdness and you can probably just accept that “that’s just the way it is”