jQuery Date Picker where text input is read only

Question

I want to use the Jquery datepicker. I've got it setup using an the alt field option. I'm displaying D/M/Y in the text field, but submitting Y-M-D. Everything works fine so far, sending the correct data, etc.

However I want to stop the user from being able to manually type a date. I had originally set the INPUT field to disabled, which worked in every browser except IE. In IE it would popup the date picker but then not close after clicking a date.

Does anyone know the best way to do this?

Answer 1

You can also do this:

<input type="text" id="datepicker" name="datepicker" readonly="readonly" />

See the readonly attribute above.

If you also want the calendar to show when the <input> has focus, add this:

$("#datepicker").datepicker({ showOn: 'both' });

Answer 2

Extending nc3b's answer:

$("#input-id").keydown(function (e)
{e.preventDefault();});

will prevent keys such as backspace, delete, etc. Otherwise, you could have a date like 11/11/2012, and a user could backspace it to 11/11/201 and technically, thats still a valid date according to JS.

Answer 3

After disabling the input field, use the destroy method to remove the datepicker. When re-enabling the field, just re-create the datepicker again.

$("#target").datepicker("destroy");

Answer 4

To prevent the user from manually editing the input, I would attach a keypress event and return false / prevent default from it's handler. This way if he has javascript he can use the datepicker, and if not he can manually edit the input.

$("#input-id").keypress(function (e)
{
    e.preventDefault();
});