GF_Field_Date

Introduction

The GF_Field_Date class extends the GF_Field class, also known as the Field Object. This class is responsible for determining how the Date field is rendered when the form is displayed and how its value is handled during and after form submission.

Settings and Properties

Settings control what options are available to the admin user when configuring the field in the form editor. Gravity Forms includes many built-in settings such as Field Label, Field Description, Choices, Conditional Logic, etc. In addition to built-in settings, custom settings can also be developed. For more information on how to develop custom settings and how to associate settings to a field, visit the GF_Field page.

Properties contain the values specified by the settings and generally are part of the Field Object.

The properties may be retrieved by accessing the Field Object as follows:

//get the field
$field = GFFormsModel::get_field( $form, 1 );
 
//get the date type
$date_type = $field->dateType;

Settings

The following settings are available for the field:

admin_label_setting
Controls whether the “Admin Field Label” setting appears.
conditional_logic_field_setting
Controls whether the “Enable Conditional Logic” setting appears.
css_class_setting
Controls whether the “Custom CSS Class” setting displays. This allows a custom css to be used for the field.
date_format_setting
Controls whether the “Date Format” setting displays. This provides a list of available formats from which to choose.
date_input_type_setting
Controls whether the “Date Input Type” drop down appears. This allows the calendar selection to be set to a “Date Field”, “Date Picker”, “Date Drop Down”.
default_value_setting
Controls whether the “Default Values” section displays. This allows a value to be set for the field.
description_setting
Controls whether the “Description” setting appears. This allows a description for the field to be displayed.
duplicate_setting
Controls whether the “No Duplicates” setting displays within the “Rules” section. This controls whether the same value may exist more than once in the database. The “Rules” setting must be active for this to display.
error_message_setting
Controls whether the “Custom Validation Message” setting which allows a custom message to be used appears.
label_setting
Controls whether the “Field Label” setting which allows the label to be changed appears.
placeholder_setting
Controls whether the “Placeholders” section appears. This allows placeholder text to display for the field.
prepopulate_field_setting
Controls whether the “Allow field to be populated dynamically” setting appears.
rules_setting
Controls whether the “Rules” settings section displays. The “Required” option shows when this is active.
sub_label_placement_setting
If a field has sub-labels, controls whether the “Sub-Label Placement” setting appears.
visibility_setting
Controls whether the “Visibility” setting displays. The controls whether the option of visibility being for “Everyone” or “Admin Only” can be set.

Properties

Below is a listing of the properties inherited from the parent class and ones specific to the Date field.

adminLabel string
The label to be used on admin pages instead of the label, useful for fields with long labels.
adminOnly boolean
Determines whether the field is visible to the user submitting the form, or only visible in the admin.
allowsPrepopulate boolean
Determines if the field values can be dynamically populated. Default is false.
calendarIconType string
Used when the chosen date type is Date Picker and determines whether the user is presented with a small calendar icon, a custom small calendar icon, or no icon at all. Values are “calendar”, “none”, “custom”.
calendarIconUrl string
Used when the chosen date type is Date Picker and the custom calendar icon is chosen. This indicates the path to the custom image being used as the icon.
conditionalLogic array
An associative array containing the conditional logic rules. See the Conditional Logic Object for more details.
cssClass string
The custom CSS class or classes to be added to the input tag for the field.
dateFormat string
The chosen format of the date. Possible values are “mdy” (mm/dd/yyyy), “dmy” (dd/mm/yyyy), “dmy_dash” (dd-mm-yyyy), “dmy_dot” (dd.mm.yyyy), “ymd_slash” (yyyy/mm/dd), “ymd_dash” (yyyy-mm-dd), “ymd_dot” (yyyy.mm.dd) .
dateType string
The type of date field to display, from a simple date field, to a drop down, to a calendar picker. Values are “datefield”, “datedropdown”, “datepicker”.
description string
The field description.
descriptionPlacement string
The placement of the field description. The description may be placed “above” or “below” the field inputs. If the placement is not specified, then the description placement setting for the Form Layout is used.
errorMessage string
The custom error message to be displayed if the field fails validation.
formId integer
The form ID.
id integer
The field ID.
inputName string
The parameter name used when dynamically populating the field. The parameter will be formatted depending on the date format chosen. For example, if the chosen format is MM/DD/YYYY, pass the parameter as 01/30/1971.
inputs array
An array containing the the individual properties for each element of the date field. This array only available when dateType is “datefield” or “datedropdown”.
- id integer
  The id of the input field.
- label string
  The label for the input.
- customLabel string
  The custom label for the input. When set, this is used in place of the label.
- placeholder string
  Placeholder text to give the user a hint on how to fill out the field. This is not submitted with the form. For the website field, the text “http://” is displayed.
- defaultValue string
  The default value to be displayed in the input field.

$inputs = array(
            array(
              'id'           => '1.1',
              'label'        => 'MM',
              'name'         => '',
              'defaultValue' => '',
              'placeholder   => '',
              'customLabel'  => 'Month',
            ),
            array(
              'id'           => '1.2',
              'label'        => 'DD',
              'name'         => '',
              'defaultValue' => '',
              'placeholder'  => '',
              'customLabel'  => 'Day',
            ),
            array(
              'id'           => '1.3',
              'label'        => 'YYYY',
              'name'         => '',
              'defaultValue' => ''
              'customLabel'  => 'Year',
            ),
          );

isRequired boolean
Marking the field as required will prevent the form from being submitted if the user does not enter a value. Default is false.
label string
The field label that will be displayed on the form and on the admin pages.
labelPlacement string
The placement of the main field label “Time”. The choices are top-aligned (top_label), left-aligned (left_label), right-aligned (right_label). To control the sub-label placement of the fields within the time group, use the “subLabelPlacement” property.
noDuplicates boolean
Determines if the value entered by the user may already exist in the database.
size string
Controls the width of the input field. The choices are “small”, “medium”, and “large”.
subLabelPlacement string
The placement of the labels for the fields (hours, minutes, am/pm) within the address group. This setting controls all of the time pieces, they cannot be set individually. They may be aligned above or below the inputs. If this property is not set, the “Sub-Label Placement” setting on the Form Settings->Form Layout page is used. If no setting is specified, the default is above inputs.
type string
The field type, which in this case is date.

$entry Value

The Date field value is not stored in the format configured on the field. The submitted value is reformatted during form submission by get_value_save_entry() so all Date fields are stored in the Entry Object in a consistent format, Y-m-d (i.e. 2016-05-21).

Useful Methods

GF_Field_Date inherits it’s available methods from GF_Field and overrides a few of them where necessary to provide its required appearance and functionality. Here are a few methods which can be useful when writing custom code.

checkdate()

The checkdate() method is used when validating the date field value by looking at the month, day, and year and verifying each piece is not empty, is numeric, and that the year is 4 digits.

Usage Example

$is_valid = $field->checkdate( $month, $day, $year );

$month integer
Two digit Month.
$day integer
Two digit Day.
$year integer
Four digit Year.
Returns boolean
Indicates if the supplied values are valid.

get_value_entry_detail()

The get_value_entry_detail() method formats the entry value before it is used in notifications, confirmations, and the entry detail page. It can also be used in custom code to reformat the $entry value back to the date format specified when the field was configured.

Usage Examples

// if you have access to the $field object
$value = $field->get_value_entry_detail( $value );
 
// if you don't have access to the $field object but you do have the $form get the field first
$field = GFFormsModel::get_field( $form, $field_id );
$value = $field->get_value_entry_detail( $value );

$value string
The serialized string to be formatted.
$currency string
Not relevant to this field type. Default is an empty string.
$use_text boolean
Not relevant to this field type. Default is false.
$format string
Not relevant to this field type. Default is html.
$media string
Not relevant to this field type. Default is screen.
Returns string
The entry value formatted according to the date format setting on the field.

Hooks

The following hooks are located in GF_Field_Date:

Source Code

The source code is located in includes/fields/class-gf-field-date.php in the Gravity Forms folder of your sites plugins directory.