[whatwg] Proposal: datesubmissionformat (repost)

[Lachlan Hunt]

Malcolm Rowe wrote:
> Date:
> <input type="text" maxlength="10" name="edit[visit_date]" size="8" 
> value="">
> Enter date of visit as dd/mm/yyyy

> So, what can the site author do? In my mind, they could do one of three 
> things:
> 
> * They could change to <input type=date>, and change the server-side 
> processing to allow either type of date to be provided.
> 
> * They could change to <input type=date>, and add client-side scripting 
> to convert one value into another (and probably provide some client-side 
> validation for non-WF2 UAs at the same time).
> 
> * They could do nothing, and leave the page as-is.

Why couldn't they just change the hint to a different format?

   <label>Enter date of visit as YYYY-MM-DD:
          <input type="date" ... ></label>

> Critically, I am not proposing a general-purpose format specifier; the 
> allowed values for this attribute would be drawn from a short list of 
> 'common' date formats. The ones I had in mind were "iso" (for ISO8601, 
> the default, yyyy-mm-dd), "d/m/y" (UK format, dd/mm/yyyy), "m/d/y" (US 
> format, mm/dd/yyyy), and probably a 'European' format "d.m.y" (dd.mm.yyyy).

   If there was going to be a date format attribute, then I would insist 
that it accepts strings using the same letter convention as in the 
ISO8601 spec.

eg. YYYY-MM-DD, YYYY-Www-D, YYYY-DDD, hh:mm:ss.sZ or combined as 
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.sZ (where Z represents the timezone that can be 
entered as either a literal "Z" or ±hh:mm.  Using the same letters, they 
could be ordered however the author liked (though ISO format would be 
recommended) eg. DD/MM/YYYY, MM/DD/YYYY.

   Even if these were predefined formats rather than any arbitary 
format, this would make it easier to understnand and more logical than 
just a single letter for each, though I think attempting to restrict it 
to a list of predefined formats wouldn't work anyway, because authors 
don't always read the specs, so many would just guess and think they 
could enter it however they like.

-- 
Lachlan Hunt

lachlan.hunt at lachy.id.au
http://www.lachy.id.au/