Question

I am trying to get the server date and time using an Ajax call. I am able to retrieve the value I need, but when I try to use it to create a javascript date object, I get an invalid date error. I tried to use trim to remove any spaces too. Any ideas?

Ajax call:

// ajax call to getcurrent server time
$.ajax({
   type: GET',
   url: 'datetime.php',
   success: function(data) {
         console.log("Data: " + data);
         currentdate = new Date($.trim(data));
         console.log("Current date from server: " + currentdate);
  },
});

PHP Code:

<?php
    echo date('y,m,d,H,i,s');
?>

Console Output (Chrome):

Data: 12,06,08,15,07,57 
Current date from server: Invalid Date

Answer 1

You are trying to use a string as if it were literal code. Kind of like using eval, but without actually including the eval.

Yes, eval is one way to do it: currentdate = eval("return new Date("+$.trim(data)+");");

However eval is evil. Instead, you should do:

var elems = $.trim(data).explode(",");
elems[1]--; // remember months are zero-based in JS
currentdate = new Date(elems[0],elems[1],elems[2],elems[3],elems[4],elems[5]);

Even better, though, would be to have your PHP script be echo time();, then your JS could be:

currentdate = new Date();
currentdate.setTime(data);