DateTime field issue, updated value is not displaying

RE: DateTime field issue, updated value is not displaying

Mike Schmitt — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 17:19:26 GMT

We can't know exactly what's going on in the background within Appian, but I made my best guess as to why not in my original comment - in short, when only half of the date field is filled in, it probably ignores everything else assuming that a user is still planning to fill in the other half eventually.

RE: DateTime field issue, updated value is not displaying

bhargavip0001 — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 16:36:03 GMT

You are right but at-least they should handle to show the updated data in the variable isn't it ?

RE: DateTime field issue, updated value is not displaying

Mike Schmitt — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 14:51:07 GMT

[quote userid="28744" url="~/discussions/f/user-interface/18504/datetime-field-issue-updated-value-is-not-displaying/72868"]but I can't restrict the user to not to clear date or time alone[/quote]

No, we have no control over this.

Basically the way you should think of it is: the date/time field only executes its save once both sides have a value entered (either a value provided for both sides, or both sides are cleared). As I said, we have no control over this and honestly, I don't think there is much Appian could do to fix this, since the expected behavior has to be that a user has to enter values on both sides before the component attempts to do a save, since otherwise it would be saving an incorrect value when only one side has been populated.

RE: DateTime field issue, updated value is not displaying

bhargavip0001 — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 14:50:40 GMT

But why can't Appian handle this issue

RE: DateTime field issue, updated value is not displaying

bhargavip0001 — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 14:48:21 GMT

Yeah this is good idea, may be i can follow this but I can't restrict the user to not to clear date or time alone isn't it ? Actually it looks like value is not updated but it is updated with different value shows inconsistency to the user may be.

RE: DateTime field issue, updated value is not displaying

Mike Schmitt — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 14:36:58 GMT

Yes - this is the behavior I was explaining in my comment above.

Are you worried about a user clearing out just one side of the date/time field? If so, then the best solution would probably be to add a control allowing the user to "clear" the date/time value so that they're not tempted to clear one side at a time, possibly only clearing out one side before changing the dropdown.

Edited to add: using side by side layout, plus rich text icons with dynamic coloring and links, you can make a "clear" icon that works pretty seamlessly - example below:

load(
  local!dropDownValue,
  local!dateAndTimeValue,
  {
    a!dropdownField(
      choiceLabels: {
        "Normal",
        "Urgent",
        "Medium"
      },
      choiceValues: {
        "Normal",
        "Urgent",
        "Medium"
      },
      value: local!dropDownValue,
      saveInto: {
        local!dropDownValue,
        if(
          rule!APN_isBlank( local!dropDownValue ),
          a!save(
            local!dateAndTimeValue,
            null
          ),
          if(
            local!dropDownValue = "Normal",
            a!save(
              local!dateAndTimeValue,
              now() + 30
            ),
            {
              a!save(
                local!dateAndTimeValue,
                now() + 10
              )
            }
          )
        )
      },
      placeholderLabel: "--Select--",
      label: "Dropdown"
    ),
    
    a!sideBySideLayout(
      alignVertical: "BOTTOM",
      items: {
        a!sideBySideItem(
          width: "MINIMIZE",
          item: a!dateTimeField(
            label: "Date Time",
            value: local!dateAndTimeValue,
            saveInto: local!dateAndTimeValue
          ),
        ),
        
        a!sideBySideItem(
          width: "MINIMIZE",
          item: a!richTextDisplayField(
            value: a!richTextItem(
              text: a!richTextIcon(
                icon: "REMOVE",
                caption: "Clear Date/Time",
                size: "LARGE",
                color: if(rule!APN_isBlank(local!dateAndTimeValue),"SECONDARY", "NEGATIVE")
              ),
              link: a!dynamicLink(
                showWhen: not(rule!APN_isBlank(local!dateAndTimeValue)),
                saveInto: {
                  a!save(
                    local!dateAndTimeValue,
                    null()
                  )
                }
              ),
              linkStyle: "STANDALONE"
            )
          )
        )
      }
    ),
    a!textField(
      label: "saved date value",
      value: local!dateAndTimeValue
    )
  }
)

RE: DateTime field issue, updated value is not displaying

bhargavip0001 — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 14:34:16 GMT

Thanks Mike for the reply, The issue is that when there is value in the DateTime field and then i have emptied either date or time , then i change the value in the drop down where i will be setting the value for DateTime field to other time which DateTime Field will not be displaying. If you the image the variable value for DateTime field is updated but its not showing up in the actual field.

RE: DateTime field issue, updated value is not displaying

Mike Schmitt — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 13:23:53 GMT

I was able to reproduce what you're talking about, but I'm not sure it's a bug exactly. From my rough understanding, the DateTime field goes into a special "in progress" state when only one of the two values has been filled out -- i.e. date OR time but not both (as in your example) -- meaning, i guess, that it is not executing a saveInto and also is not displaying whatever value is displayed in its "value" parameter (since it would be null until both sides are filled out the first time).