Question

I’m using jQuery’s datepicker plugin in .NET ASP MVC3 intranet application. User that use application have offices in different countries and different locale. This is why I wanted to integrate Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture.DateTimeFormat with jQuery datepicker plugin. My first solution was to create helper extension method:

    public static string jQueryDatePickerFormat(this HtmlHelper helper)
    {
        return Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture.DateTimeFormat.ShortDatePattern;
    }

and set dateFormat option in javascript like this:

$("#StartDate").datepicker({ dateFormat: '@Html.jQueryDatePickerFormat()' });

Soon after I realized that datepicker’s dateFormat option supports formats that have different implementation from format in .NET.

For instance: Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture.DateTimeFormat.ShortDatePattern for pl-PL returns yyyy-MM-dd (it will format date as 2010-01-01), whereas the same format in datePicker will format the same date as 20102010 January 01. I quickly adapted my helper method and applied quick fix Replace(“yyyy”, “yy”).Replace(“MM”, “mm”):

    public static string jQueryDatePickerFormat(this HtmlHelper helper)
    {
        return Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture.DateTimeFormat.ShortDatePattern.Replace("yyyy", "yy").Replace("MM", "mm");
    }

I works, but I wait for the moment when other issues will emerge. Is there any simpley way to implement .NET locale settings into jQuery’s datePicker plugin?

Thanks,Pawel

Answer 1

The codeproject article JQueryUI Datepicker in ASP.NET MVC
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/62031/JQueryUI-Datepicker-in-ASP-NET-MVC has function that does exactly what you wanted

    /// Converts the .net supported date format current culture 
/// format into JQuery Datepicker format.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="html">HtmlHelper object.</param>
/// <param name="format">Date format supported by .NET.</param>
/// <returns>Format string that supported in JQuery Datepicker.</returns>
public static string ConvertDateFormat(this HtmlHelper html, string format)

I’ve also posted a function that does the opposite-Translate jQuery UI Datepicker format to .Net Date format