Improve Entry Date field to make it user friendly to pick a different time

[studiopatagon]

The current field for entry date and entry expiration date presents a problem to some editors where they have to manually edit the date/time string to set a different time for the entry.

The solution presented makes it more user friendly and error proof while still allowing those who want to edit the string to do so.

[blairliikala]

Are there any existing date/time projects that could be used here? Would it be helpful to change the native input element to <input type="datetime-local">?

[bsrweb]

+1 to this.

[jaredchesebro]

This looks great. I would also consider adding +- or up and down arrows to hours and minutes inputs.

[pyrobob83]

Another +1 from me in terms of making it easier for users to set a specific time - I think this looks great and I like the idea of +/- buttons too.

I also think it could be useful to allow an option for a date field to not show the time at all if that's not relevant to the use-case. I've built things over the years where the time was just a distraction and I had to add something along the lines of "Ignore the time" in the field instructions. I suppose in these cases the timestamp in the Database would just be midnight of the chosen day.

[PaulBaileyAtChan]

+1 No strong opinion on the exact UI, but being able to set the date using the calendar pop-up, but not the time, doesn't make a lot of sense, so adding a nifty tool for that would be a lot more friendly.

Like @pyrobob83, I also find myself often only wanting/using part of the date/time combo (sometimes just day/month, and not even the year), and having the other pieces is a distraction. Sounds like a tricky bit of UI to get right, but anything along those lines would be useful.

Given the above, I'm wondering if a useful extension to the template language for dates would be to allow individual components to be picked out, something like (for e.g.):

{date_field:year}
{date_field:month}
{date_field:day}

The above are all possible using the existing formatting codes, natch, but those are really for formatted output, and it can be clunky to use them for conditional logic in templates:

{if date_field:year == 2023}

would be simpler/clearer than:

{if '{date_field format="%Y"}' == '2023'}

[chrisdaviesweb]

+1! I have multiple clients that output timeslots - it's always been a bit of a strain to explain that the date field doesn't allow time selection and that it has to be done manually. This would be a big help in these kind of scenarios.