Jquery UI datepicker. Disable array of Dates

Question

I have been trying to search for a solution to my Jquery ui datepicker problem and I'm having no luck. Here's what I'm trying to do...

I have an application where i'm doing some complex PHP to return a JSON array of dates that I want BLOCKED out of the Jquery UI Datepicker. I am returning this array:

["2013-03-14","2013-03-15","2013-03-16"]

Is there not a simple way to simply say: block these dates from the datepicker?

I've read the UI documentation and I see nothing that helps me. Anyone have any ideas?

Answer 1

beforeShowDate didn't work for me, so I went ahead and developed my own solution:

$('#embeded_calendar').datepicker({
               minDate: date,
                localToday:datePlusOne,
               changeDate: true,
               changeMonth: true,
               changeYear: true,
               yearRange: "-120:+1",
               onSelect: function(selectedDateFormatted){

                     var selectedDate = $("#embeded_calendar").datepicker('getDate');

                    deactivateDates(selectedDate);
                   }

           });


              var excludedDates = [ "10-20-2017","10-21-2016", "11-21-2016"];

              deactivateDates(new Date());

            function deactivateDates(selectedDate){
                setTimeout(function(){ 
                      var thisMonthExcludedDates = thisMonthDates(selectedDate);
                      thisMonthExcludedDates = getDaysfromDate(thisMonthExcludedDates);
                       var excludedTDs = page.find('td[data-handler="selectDay"]').filter(function(){
                           return $.inArray( $(this).text(), thisMonthExcludedDates) >= 0
                       });

                       excludedTDs.unbind('click').addClass('ui-datepicker-unselectable');
                   }, 10);
            }

            function thisMonthDates(date){
              return $.grep( excludedDates, function( n){
                var dateParts = n.split("-");
                return dateParts[0] == date.getMonth() + 1  && dateParts[2] == date.getYear() + 1900;
            });
            }

            function getDaysfromDate(datesArray){
                  return  $.map( datesArray, function( n){
                    return n.split("-")[1]; 
                });
             }