Calendar

calendar input

Table of Contents

Overview

A calendar control is a basic control that allows user to select dates and/or times for data entry. Each calendar control must be associated with a Single Named Range (SNR) in the workbook. Dates can be selected from the monthly date view, whereas times can be selected by pressing the clock icon underneath the monthly view, where applicable.

Properties

The properties of a calendar control are outlined below.

Named Range

A list of all Single Named Ranges (SNR) from the workbook. The value entered into this input will be sent to the calculation engine, as if the user entered the value into the spreadsheet model.

Selecting a named range from the list may default some of the other calendar control properties based on some metadata captured from the spreadsheet model, such as the default value.

Named ranges containing formulas are excluded from the list, as well as named ranges that have already been bound to a different input in your user interface.

Enable Formula Override

This option becomes available only if you select a Name Range that contains a formula.

Enabling this option allows the formula result in the control to be overwritten. This essentially means that users can set a new value for this control during runtime, and the associated formula will not change the cell value once edited.

If a cell with Enable Formula Override is edited, a button will become available right next to the cell, that can be used to clear the formula override and revert the value of the cell back to the original formula-based calculated value.

Force Override on Save

This option becomes available only when Enable Formula Override is enabled, and the Name Range selected for the control contains a formula. Using this option is limited to the scenario in which the published application has an Action Button control with Save event.

When you Save a record in the published application, each control that has Force Override on Save option enabled will save its current value, and override the formula at the same time, even if you haven’t overwritten the value in the control manually. Force Override on Save option does that automatically when the record is being saved.

Name

The Name property constitutes the label that will appear in the user interface. Other properties, such as Placeholder, will also derive their dynamic {FriendlyName} value from this property.

Placeholder

The Placeholder property defines the text that will be visible in the calendar control when no input has been entered. This will only appear if no default value is selected or if the user clears the input's value.

This property supposed the special {FriendlyName} tag to insert the value of the Name property into the placeholder.

Size

The Size property denotes the size of the calendar control in the user interface. Note that altering the style of calendar controles via Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) may affect whether or not the size property is visibly relevant in your published application.

Label Horizontal Alignment

The Label Horizontal Alignment property determines the horizontal orientation of the label. This value can be set to Left, Center, or Right. The default horizontal alignment is Left.

Label Vertical Alignment

The Label Vertical Alignment property determines the vertical orientation of the label. This value can be set to Top, Middle, or Bottom. The default vertical alignment is Middle.

Text Alignment

The Text Alignment property indicates where the user's selected text will be aligned within the control. The available options are Left,Center or Right. Note that altering the style of these controls via Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) may affect whether or not this property is relevant in your published application.

Label Size

The Label Size property is the spacing distribution of the input control's label vs. the input control. The maximum width of both controls cumulatively is considered to be 12 - a width of 12 for the label would indicate that the label occupies a full row within its container and the input control occupies a full row beneath it.

Any label distribution below 12 will indicate that the label and the input control occupy the same row in the user interface. The label's width will be used to calculate the control's width such that the two controls cumulatively occupy the full width of 12.

For example, setting the Label Size to 6 will indicate that the control width is also 6. This means the label will occupy 50% the width of the row and the control will occupy 50% the width of the row.

Likewise, setting the Label Size to 3 will indicate that the control width is 9, meaning that the label will occupy 25% the width of the row while the input control occupies 75% the width of the row.

Setting the Label Size to 0 will hide the label in the user interface.

Default Value Type

This option determines what type of Default Value the Calendar control will be populated with when the user interface is first loaded. You can choose one from three options:

  • Manual - When this option is selected, the Default Value of the control can be set manually to define a static value.
  • Pull From Metadata - When this option is selected, the default value of the control will be pulled from the default value of the named range it’s tied to in the underlying workbook. The default value coming from the named range can be overridden from the Metadata Editor (Names). When you select this option, the Default Value property will be hidden.
  • Current DateTime - When this option is selected, the default value of the control will be set to the current date or time value (depending on the DateTime Format selection). When you select this option, the Default Value property will be hidden.

Default Value

The Default Value property is visible only when the Default Value Type property ise set to Manual.

This property specifies the value that will be displaye on the Calendar control when the user interface is first loaded. This property might display a suggestion if the target named range for the Calendar control contains a default value.

Start Date

The Start Date property determines the first day and/or time that can be selected from the Calendar control. This essentially means that any date and/or time that falls before what is selected for this property will be disabled when interacting with the Calendar input. Note that the Start Date cannot be greater than the Default Value.

End Date

The End Date property determines the last day and/or time that can be selected from the Calendar control. This essentially means that any date and/or time that falls after what is selected for this property will be disabled when interacting with the Calendar input. Note that the End Date cannot be less than Default Value.

Disable Day(s) of Week

The Disable Day(s) of Week property determines the day(s) of the week that will be disabled in the Calendar control. For example, selecting Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for this option will allow users to only select weekends from the Calendar input.

Tooltip Type

Tooltips are informative message boxes that are displayed when you mouse-over or click on a control. The Tooltip Type property determines the message style, and when the information will be shown.

  • Tooltip: The content will appear in a small bubble when the user enters focus on the target input by moving their mouse over the control.
  • Popover: The content will appear in a pop-up box when the user clicks on the target input.

Tooltip Content

This property accepts the special {FriendlyName} tag if you want to insert the value of the Name property of this control into the tooltip.


Tooltip

The Tooltip Content property determines the information that will appear in the tooltip bubble.

Popover

The Popover Content property determines the information that will appear in the popover message.

Clicking on the Edit Content button will launch an instance of a rich-text editor that supports HTML code. The editor includes a simple menu for inserting certain control sets such as tables, lists, images, videos, and links, as well as text formatting controls, such as boldness, highlighting, and font.

Modifying the HTML Content

Clicking on the HTML (</>) button will change the the editor to HTML-mode. In this mode, you can enter your own HTML code, including references to classes that are defined in the Stylesheets module. Click the 'X' button in the right corner to close this window and save your changes.

Styles that are defined in the Stylesheets module will not be visible in the User Interface Designer view of the application. These stylesheets are only loaded during the Preview and Published versions of the application.

Note that scripts that are injected into the HTML will be stripped from the contents control.

Dynamic Content Injection

The value of calculated, and input named ranges can be injected directly into the HTML contents of the popover.

All dynamically injected variables must be entered inside double curly braces - {{ }}. To inject a variable into the contents, begin by entering double curly braces, and the system will automatically display available fields.

Single Named Ranges

When you enter double curly braces, you will see a list of Single Named Ranges (SNR). Selecting one of these from the list will populate the name of the named range in the contents.

Several formatting options are available when injecting the value of a Single Named Range (SNR). To use any of the formatting options, simply type in a colon character (:) after the name to see a list of supported data types. If you don't apply any formatting, the name will be injected as an unformatted value.

The data types (Integer, Decimal, DateTime, or Text) are necessary to determine the format of the field. The system will automatically format the value of the Single Named Range (SNR) when you select a data type. The text data type will get the formatted value directly from the calculation engine. Text data type also has an optional paramater (None) for formatting that has no effect on the output.

Upon selecting the data type, add a semicolon character (;) to begin defining the desired format for the output value. The .NET formatting standards apply to this property as outlined below.

Below are some examples.

{{NamedRangeName:Decimal;C2}}

  • For NamedRangeName = 12, the formatted value will be $12.00.
  • For NamedRangeName = 1.2345561, the formatted value will be $1.23.
  • For NamedRangeName = 'ABC', the formatted value will be blank.

{{NamedRangeName:Decimal;P3}}

  • For NamedRangeName = 0.12, the formatted value will be 12.000%.
  • For NamedRangeName = 1.2345561, the formatted value will be 123.457%.
  • For NamedRangeName = 'ABC', the formatted value will be blank.

{{NamedRangeName:Decimal;00000}}

  • For NamedRangeName = 1234.5678, the formatted value will be 01235.
  • For NamedRangeName = 1.2345561, the formatted value will be 00001.
  • For NamedRangeName = 'ABC', the formatted value will be blank.

Predefined Formats

You can also use a predefined Numeric, or Date and Time Formatting as outlined below.

Integer (Input value: 1234)

  • {{ValueInteger:Integer;00}} => 1234
  • {{ValueInteger:Integer;#,##0}} => 1,234
  • {{ValueInteger:Integer;00000}} => 01234
  • {{ValueInteger:Integer;##-##}} => 12-34

Decimal (Input value: 123456.78)

  • {{ValueDecimal:Decimal;0.0}} => 123456.8
  • {{ValueDecimal:Decimal;0.00}} => 123456.78
  • {{ValueDecimal:Decimal;#,##0.0}} => 123,456.8
  • {{ValueDecimal:Decimal;#,##0.00}} => 123,456.78
  • {{ValueDecimal:Decimal;0.##}} => 123456.78
  • {{ValueDecimal:Decimal;00.00}} => 123456.78
  • {{ValueDecimal:Decimal;0,0.00}} => 123,456.78
  • {{ValueDecimal:Decimal;0%}} => 12345678%
  • {{ValueDecimal:Decimal;0.0%}} => 12345678.0%

Datetime (Input value: 12/05/2018 11:25:07 pm)

  • {{NamedRangeName:Datetime;yyyy}} => 2018
  • {{NamedRangeName:Datetime;MM}} => 12
  • {{NamedRangeName:Datetime;dd}} => 05
  • {{NamedRangeName:Datetime;yyyy/MM/dd}} => 2018/12/05
  • {{NamedRangeName:Datetime;MM/dd/yyyy}} => 12/05/2018
  • {{NamedRangeName:Datetime;dd/MM/yyyy}} => 05/12/2018
  • {{NamedRangeName:Datetime;HH}} => 23
  • {{NamedRangeName:Datetime;mm}} => 25
  • {{NamedRangeName:Datetime;ss}} => 07
  • {{NamedRangeName:Datetime;tt}} => PM
  • {{NamedRangeName:Datetime;HH:mm tt}} => 23:25 PM
  • {{NamedRangeName:Datetime;HH:mm:ss tt}} => 23:25:07 PM

Text

  • {{NamedRangeName:Text;None}} : None is an optional parameter
  • {{NamedRangeName:Text}} : Will work the same as above

While formats are Culture invariant when making a selection from the list, the values shown will be different for the current application Culture. For example #,##0.0 format will be shown as in "Thousands Comma Delimiter, Decimal Period Delimiter" Culture, but it will be shown as # ##0,0 for the "Thousands Space Delimiter, Decimal Comma Delimiter" Culture setting. Once you make a selection, the value will be inserted in the contents will be the same for all Cultures.


Inserting Stubs Using the Stubs Button

Clicking the Stubs button on the top right of the content editor will open the Insert Stub menu where you can add document stubs with the help of a graphical user interface.

On the Insert Stub menu, you can select a named range, type, and format to automatically add the stub corresponding to your selections. If you want to use text format you can click Pull format from Excel checkbox.

After selecting the named range, type and format properties, or selecting the named range field and clicking Pull format from Excel checkbox press the Insert Stub button to insert the stub text into the content editor.

Tooltip Position

The Tooltip Position property determines where the tooltip or popover will be positioned in respect to the target input.

If Auto is selected, the tooltip or popover position will be calculated automatically based on other parameters like the position of the target input, and content of the tooltip or popover.

Trigger Calculations

If Trigger Calculations is selected, changing the value in this input control will trigger a calculation. Calculations perform a server call with all of the inputs from the user interface and populate the output controls with the values from the updated calculation.

In workbooks with complex calculations, enabling calculations may lead to delays in the user experience.

The best practice when determining whether an input should trigger calculations should take into account the following factors:

  1. Does this input affect any calculated values? If the field is simply informational, then there is no reason for that control to trigger calculations. If there are no formulas or other controls that are dependent on this control, the Trigger Calculations will be disabled by default, but you can enable it anyways if you'd like.
  2. Does this input affect my user interface? If the field can change the visibility or enabled-ness of pages or other controls, then it is a good idea to trigger calculations when changes occur to the input.
  3. Will something else trigger calculations before this input is relevant? If the user won't see the results of the calculations until reaching a different page, then you can hold off on triggering calculations until a button press or a different control's value is changed.

Validation Trigger

The Validation Trigger selections determine the events that will trigger the validation rules to be processed against the control. Validation constitutes any validation options, such as those dictated by the Required and Minimum/Maximum Length settings. If validation fails (e.g. the control is set to Required, but contains no data), then the request calculation will be ignored.

You can select any number of events to trigger a validation check. The following triggers are available:

  • After Change - As soon as the value in the control is changed.
  • Before Calculate - Before any calculation event is triggered. This includes navigation or button clicks, as well as any other control triggering calculations. This property can cancel a calculate action if it fails.
  • Before Navigate - Before any navigation event is triggered. This includes navigation by clicking a page in the navigation bar or a navigation action triggered from an Action Button. This property can cancel the subsequent action if it fails.
  • Before Save - Before a save action is triggered. This property can cancel the subsequent action if it fails.

Required

The Required determines whether the control is to be made required for validation purposes. If the control doesn't contain any data, the validation check will fail.

This property can be set to Always or Never to make the control required or not statically.

If the underlying workbook contains any Boolean Single Named Ranges (SNR) (i.e. a single with a TRUE or FALSE outcome), the system will display the By Value Of option. Selecting this option and targeting a Boolean Single Named Range (SNR) will make the control requried if the outcome of this named range is TRUE, and not required if it's FALSE, after the calculations run.

Date/Time Format

The format field will determine the masking of the value entered in the control, as well as the available picker controls when the field is focused.

The available options are as follows:

  • Default: Both the date and time will be selectable from the control when focused, including the time zone. The time will include hours, minutes, seconds, and AM/PM flag.
US Format
  • With Time: Both the date and time will be selectable from the control when focused, excluding the time zone. The time will include hours, minutes, seconds, and AM/PM flag. This is oriented towards United States formatting, which includes the month first, followed by the day (i.e. MM/DD).
  • With Time (24 Hours) : Both the date and time will be selectable from the control when focused, excluding the time zone. The time will include hours(in 24 hours format), minutes, seconds. This is oriented towards United States formatting, which includes the month first, followed by the day (i.e. MM/DD).
  • Without Time : Only date will be selectable from the control when focused, excluding the time zone. This is oriented towards United States formatting, which includes the month first, followed by the day (i.e. MM/DD).
International Format
  • With Time: Both the date and time will be selectable from the control when focused, excluding the time zone. The time will include hours, minutes, seconds, and AM/PM flag. This is oriented towards the global formatting, which includes the day first, followed by the month (i.e. DD/MM).
  • With Time (24 Hours): Only the time will be selectable from the control when focused, excluding the time zone. The time will include hours(in 24 hours format), minutes, seconds.
  • Without Time: Only date will be selectable from the control when focused. This is oriented towards the global formatting, which includes the day first, followed by the month (i.e. DD/MM)
Time Only
  • AM/PM: Only the time will be selectable from the control when focused. The time will include hours, minutes, seconds, and AM/PM flag.
  • 24-Hour: Only the time will be selectable from the control when focused. The time will include hours (in 24 hours format), minutes, seconds.
  • Short AM/PM: Only the time will be selectable from the control when focused. The time will include hours, minutes, and AM/PM flag.
  • Short 24-Hour: Only the time will be selectable from the control when focused. The time will include hours (in 24 hours format), minutes.

Enabled

Indicates whether the calendar control field is enabled.

This can be configured as Always or Never to indicate whether the input is statically enabled or not.

Alternatively, if any Boolean Single Named Ranges (SNR) exist (i.e. ranges pointing to a single cell that evaluates to TRUE or FALSE), then the enabled-ness of the input can be configured to reflect the value of that named range using the 'By Value Of' setting.

Visible

Indicates whether the calendar control field is visible.

This can be configured as Always or Never to indicate whether the input is statically visible or not.

Alternatively, if any Boolean Single Named Ranges (SNR) exist (i.e. ranges pointing to a single cell that evaluates to TRUE or FALSE), then the visibility of the input can be configured to reflect the value of that named range using the 'By Value Of' setting.