1.3.0 input[date] model is a Date object in local time zone instead of UTC

[estekhin]

Please check this plunker for a demonstration.

Assuming the computer time zone is not UTC and the browser supports input[date], select a date from the input[date] dropdown.

The input field will display a date in the localized format, for example "01.08.2014" in my case. My current timezone is GMT+4.

value is

"2014-07-31T20:00:00.000Z"

but expected is either

"2014-07-31T20:00:00.000-0400"

or

"2014-08-01T00:00:00.000Z"

It seems that the code that converts input[date].value into a Date model object first obtains the correct value "2014-07-31T20:00:00.000-0400" but then replaces the correct "-0400" suffix with incorrect "Z", or it is a matter of formatting when the date is formatted as localized but the timezone is not part of the format and instead the "Z" suffix is hardcoded..

The code that converts the string value of the input[date] into a Date model should follow the HTML5 input[type=date] guidelines and convert the value string as if it is the start of the day in the UTC regardless of the current timezone.

[petebacondarwin]

@estekhin - Thanks for reporting this issue. Has this ever worked in a previous version of AngularJS?

[petebacondarwin]

I believe this is a valid issue and can be fixed by changing the following line: https://github.com/angular/angular.js/blob/master/src/ng/directive/input.js#L1048

return new Date(map.yyyy, map.MM - 1, map.dd, map.HH, map.mm);

to

return new Date(Date.UTC(map.yyyy, map.MM - 1, map.dd, map.HH, map.mm));

But I am not sure how this would affect the parsing of other date/time inputs. Some investigation is needed.

[estekhin]

I think that angular 1.2 does not provide special handling for input[date], so in 1.2 ngModel returns the original string value.

[caitp]

the date inputs are not implemented in 1.2 at all, so there is no use backporting any fixes there.

[estekhin]

@petebacondarwin why simple new Date(string value) can't be used? It correctly parses the string returned from input[date].value and returns a date object.

Check http://plnkr.co/edit/tkAyCBoILXQWvC84U2SV?p=preview for a demo - plain input value and a Date object created from it have correct value, while angular model mis-adjusts time-zone and returns a value which can be off-by-one day.

[estekhin]

Related to this issue - if i am fine with input[date] "as is" with the string model, will i be able to disable special input[date] handling in angular 1.3? Is this being discussed somewhere or should i raise a new issue/feature request for this?

[petebacondarwin]

@estekhin - It would be better if we fixed this but you could create an additional input directive that cleared out the $parsers and adds your own. Something like this:

angular.directive('input', function() {
  return function postLink(scope, element, attrs, ngModel) {
    if ( attrs.type !== 'date' || !ngModel ) { return; }
    ngModel.$parsers = [
      function myDateParser(val) { ... }
    ];
  });
});

[petebacondarwin]

Actually from looking at the createDateParser function it appears that if it already has a Date object then it just returns it. So you can even just add your own date parser to the front of the $parsers array and it will supercede the parsing of the built in input directive.