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erazemk6135
March 15, 2024
Solved

Changing date field format, process models names become question marks

  • March 15, 2024
  • 8 replies
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Hello I am trying to change the format of the displayed date in the date field. Currently it is mm/dd/yyyy. I found a solution in admin console -> internationalization. It changes the format if I pick locale to en_UK, however then process model names and descriptions become three question marks "???". How to fix this or maybe there is another way to do this date formatting? I am on Appian 23.3

Best answer by stefanhelzle0001

Models do not have a locale, but rely on the enabled locales and the standard locale as defined in the admin console. In the model designer, you will see the locale of your account. When you add nodes, it will only populate the node name etc. in your locale. But you can switch to other locales in the node properties and enter these values.

Deploying to an environment with a different language setup can lead to issues.

As a baseline, I try to define EN_US as the default language and make all developers use this locale. Any additional language or localization can be enabled and if I do not enter the translated values, EN_US will be the fallback.

8 replies

stefanhelzle0001
Brainy
March 15, 2024

By default, Appian localizes the format of dates and numbers based on your user locale.

If you need to display things in a different way, you can use the text() function.

Keep in mind that users might expect to get "their" formatting so overwriting the default can become an issue.

erazemk6135
March 15, 2024

a!dateField(
  label: "Start Date",
  labelPosition: "ABOVE",
  value: ri!date,
  saveInto: ri!date
)


This is the code I am talking about. If I set the (display) value to text(ri!date, "dd/mm/yyyy") it doesn't work and it's not saving to ri!date.
Why is it a problem if I change the user locale? Let's say I need to test how things will look for different locales, that should be possible right?

stefanhelzle0001
Brainy
March 15, 2024

The date field cannot be customized in how is accepts and formats the date.

If you need/want to display a date, outside the date field in a different formatting, it can become confusing for the user.

But, whether all of this is a problem or not, in your situation, I cannot say.

BTW, you do not need to go to the admin console to change the locale of your specific user. That's done in the user settings.