Zebra Datepicker

A super-lightweight, highly configurable, cross-browser date picker jQuery plugin.
Filed under user interface

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A super-lightweight, highly configurable, cross-browser date time picker jQuery plugin

Enhance your forms with the powerful and highly-configurable Zebra Datepicker date time picker jQuery plugin. This date time picker adds an intuitive calendar interface for selecting dates and times, complete with a convenient month and year jump feature. The selected date will be formatted and entered into the input field according to your specified options. Simply attach the plugin to your input fields and let the calendar icon do the rest.

Features

it is small – it weighs around 30KB minified (9.1KB gzipped) offering the best ratio of features per used bytes
it is both a date picker as well as a time picker
it's cross-browser – works in every major browser; works also in Internet Explorer 6 (as long as you are using a version of the date picker that is less than 2.0.0)!
has a default color scheme that blends-in well with almost any design, and it's easily customizable through the well-organized CSS file; two additional themes are included, one of them being for use with Twitter Bootstrap
offers an intuitive interface allowing for easy navigation through months and years
offers an intuitive mechanism for disabling dates and date ranges using a syntax similar to cron's syntax
supports defining of custom weekend days for countries that don't have the weekend on Saturday and Sunday
supports most of date formats you can think of, borrowing the syntax of PHP's date function
supports all sorts of combinations for starting and ending dates
date pickers can be "paired" – where one or more date pickers will use the value of another date picker as starting date
supports internationalization
supports RTL languages
works by automatically attaching a small calendar icon to the indicated input fields which displays the attached date picker when clicked.
it's compatible with AMD and CommonJS

🎂 Support the development of this project

Your support is greatly appreciated and it keeps me motivated continue working on open source projects. If you enjoy this project please star it by clicking on the star button at the top of the page. If you're feeling generous, you can also buy me a coffee through PayPal or become a sponsor. Thank you for your support! 🎉

Demo

See the demos

Requirements

Zebra Datepicker has no dependencies other than jQuery 1.7.0+ and requires that the page you are using the plugin on to have a strict doctype like:

<!doctype html>

Installation

Zebra Datepicker is available as a npm package. To install it use:

# the "--save" argument adds the plugin as a dependency in packages.json
npm install zebra_datepicker --save

Zebra Datepicker is also available as a Bower package. To install it use:

# the "--save" argument adds the plugin as a dependency in bower.json
bower install zebra_datepicker --save

How to use

First, load jQuery from a CDN and provide a fallback to a local source like:

<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.5.0.min.js"></script>
<script>window.jQuery || document.write('<script src="path/to/jquery-3.5.0.js"><\/script>')</script>

Load the Zebra Datepicker jQuery plugin:

<script src="path/to/zebra_datepicker.min.js"></script>

Alternatively, you can load Zebra Datepicker from JSDelivr CDN like this:

<!-- for the most recent version, not recommended in production -->
<script
  src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/zebra_datepicker@latest/dist/zebra_datepicker.min.js"></script>

<!-- for a specific version -->
<script
  src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/zebra_datepicker@1.9.13/dist/zebra_datepicker.min.js"></script>

<!-- replacing "min" with "src" will serve you the non-compressed version -->

Load the style sheet file from a local source

<link rel="stylesheet" href="path/to/theme/zebra_datepicker.min.css">

...or from JSDelivr CDN

<!-- for the most recent version of the "default" theme -->
<link
  rel="stylesheet"
  href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/zebra_datepicker@latest/dist/css/default/zebra_datepicker.min.css">

<!-- for the most recent version of the "bootstrap" theme -->
<link
  rel="stylesheet"
  href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/zebra_datepicker@latest/dist/css/bootstrap/zebra_datepicker.min.css">

<!-- replacing "min" with "src" will serve you the non-compressed version -->

Zebra Datepicker is also available on cdnjs, one of the most famous free and public web front-end CDN services

Now, within the DOM-ready event, attach the Zebra Datepicker plugin to a <input type="text"> control.

$(document).ready(function() {

    // assuming the controls you want to attach the plugin to
    // have the "datepicker" class set
    $('input.datepicker').Zebra_DatePicker();

});

This will attach a calendar and to the specified element(s). Clicking the icon, will make the date picker visible.

To get a reference to the instance of Zebra DatePicker attached to an element do:

var datepicker = $('selector').data('Zebra_DatePicker');

Configuration options

Properties

All parameters are optional.

Note that any of the properties below may also be set via data attributes. To do this you have prefix the name of the property you want to set with data-zdp_. One important thing to remember is that if the value of the property is an array you’ll have to use double quotes inside the square brackets and therefore single quotes around the attribute. See example.

Property	Type	Default	Description
always_visible	mixed	`false`	Should the date picker be always visible? Setting this property to a jQuery element will result in the date picker being always visible, the indicated element acting as the date picker's container; Setting this property to boolean `true` will result in the date picker not closing when selecting a date but only when the user clicks outside the date picker.
container	jQuery	`$('body')`	By default, the date picker is injected into the document's `<body>` element; use this property to tell the library to inject the date picker into a custom element - useful when you want the date picker to open at a specific position.
current_date	mixed	`false`	By default, the current date (the value of Today) is taken from the system where the date picker is run on. Set this to a date in the format of `YYYY-MM-DD` to use a different date.
custom_classes	Array	`false`	Dates that should have custom classes applied to them. An object in the form of `{` `'myclass1': [dates_to_apply_the_custom_class_to],` `'myclass2': [dates_to_apply_the_custom_class_to]` `}` ...where dates_to_apply_the_custom_class_to is an array of dates in the same format as required for the `disabled_dates` property. Custom classes will be applied only in the day picker view and not on month/year views! Also note that the class name will have the "_disabled" suffix added if the day the class is applied to is disabled. In order for the styles in your custom classes to be applied, make sure you are using the following syntax: `.Zebra_DatePicker .dp_daypicker td.myclass1 { .. }` `.Zebra_DatePicker .dp_daypicker td.myclass1_disabled { .. }`
days	Array	`['Sunday', 'Monday', 'Tuesday', 'Wednesday', 'Thursday', 'Friday', 'Saturday']`	Days of the week, Sunday to Saturday.
days_abbr	mixed	`false`	Abbreviated names of days. By default, the abbreviated name of a day consists of the first 2 letters from the day's full name. While this is common for most languages, there are also exceptions for languages like Thai, Loa, Myanmar, etc. where this is not correct. For these cases, specify an array with the abbreviations to be used for the 7 days of the week; leave it `false` to use the first 2 letters of a day's name as the abbreviation.
default_position	string	`'icon_top_right'`	The position of the date picker relative to the element it is attached to, or relative to the date picker icon. Possible values are element_top_right element_bottom_right element_top_left element_bottom_left icon_top_right icon_bottom_right icon_top_left icon_bottom_left If the icon is disabled, the positioning is done relative to the element! Also note that, regardless of this setting, the date picker's position will be automatically adjusted to always fit in the viewport, if needed. See also the `offset` property which also has an effect on the date picker's position. Default is `icon_top_right` meaning that the date picker will be positioned at the top right of the icon. Prior to version 2.0.1 the possible values were "above" and "below". For backward compatiblity these values are still valid and translate to "icon_top_right" and "icon_bottom_right" respectively. This property will be ignored if `always_visible` or `container` properties are set!
direction	mixed	`0`	Direction of the calendar `n` (a positive integer) creates a future-only calendar beginning at n days after the reference date¹ `-n` (a negative integer) creates a past-only calendar ending n days before the reference date `0` creates a calendar with no restrictions boolean `true` creates a future-only calendar starting with the reference date boolean `false` for a past-only calendar ending on the reference date You may also set this property to an array with two elements in the following combinations: first item is boolean `true` (calendar starts on the reference date), a `positive integer` (calendar starts n days after the reference date), or a `valid date` given in the format defined by the `format` attribute (calendar starts at the specified date), and the second item is boolean `false` (the calendar has no ending date), a `positive integer` (calendar ends n days after the starting date), or a `valid date` given in the format defined by the `format` attribute and which occurs after the starting date (calendar ends at the specified date) first item is boolean `false` (calendar ends on the reference date), a `negative integer` (calendar ends n days before the reference date), or a `valid date` given in the format defined by the `format` attribute (calendar ends at the specified date), and the second item is a `positive integer` (calendar ends n days before the ending date), or a `valid date` given in the format defined by the `format` attribute and which occurs before the starting date (calendar starts at the specified date) Examples: `[1, 7]` calendar starts tomorrow and ends seven days after that `[true, 7]` calendar starts on the reference date and ends seven days after that `['2013-01-01', false]` calendar starts on January 1st 2013 and has no ending date ("format" is YYYY-MM-DD) `[false, '2012-01-01']` calendar ends on the reference date and starts on January 1st 2012 ("format" is YYYY-MM-DD) Note that `disabled_dates` property will still apply! The `reference date` is the current date unless the date picker is the `pair` of another date picker, case in which the reference date is the date selected in that date picker.
disable_time_picker	boolean	`false`	By default, setting a format that also involves time (`h`, `H`, `g`, `G`, `i`, `s`, `a`, `A`) will automatically enable the time picker. If you want to use a format that involves time but you don't want the time picker, set this property to `true`.
disabled_dates	mixed	`false` no disabled dates	An array of disabled dates in the following format: `'day month year weekday'` where weekday is optional and can be `0-6` (Saturday to Sunday). The syntax is similar to cron's syntax: the values are separated by spaces and may contain (asterisk) `-` (dash) and `,` (comma) delimiters. Examples: `['1 1 2012']` would disable January 1, 2012 `['` `1 2012']` would disable all days in January 2012 `['1-10 1 2012']` would disable January 1 through 10 in 2012 `['1,10 1 2012']` would disable January 1 and 10 in 2012 `['1-10,20,22,24 1-3 ']` would disable 1 through 10, plus the 22nd and 24th of January through March for every year `['` `0,6']` would disable all Saturdays and Sundays `['01 07 2012', '02 07 2012', ' 08 2012']` would disable 1st and 2nd of July 2012, and all of August of 2012 DISABLING ALL DATES AND NOT SPECIFYING AT LEAST ONE ENABLED DATE WILL SEND THE SCRIPT INTO AN INFINITE LOOP SEARCHING FOR AN ENABLED DATE TO DISPLAY!
enabled_ampm	mixed	`false` both am/pm are selectable	An array of selectable am/pm. Allowed values are `['am']`, `['pm']`, or `['am', 'pm']`. Applies only when `format` contains `A` or `a`. Note that even when only one is enabled, `onChange()` will still be triggered when clicking the up/down buttons next to AM/PM on the timepicker.
enabled_dates	mixed	`false` all dates enabled	An array of enabled dates in the same format as required for `disabled_dates` property. To be used together with the `disabled_dates` property by first setting the `disabled_dates` property to something like `[ ]` (which will disable everything) and the setting the `enabled_dates` property to, say, `[` `0,6]` to enable just weekends.
enabled_hours	mixed	`false` all hours are selectable	An array of selectable hours. Applies only when `format` contains one of the following characters: `H`, `G`, `h`, `g`. Valid values are between `0-24` (not padded with `0`!) when `format` contains `H` or `G` characters, and between `1-12` (not padded with `0`!) when `format` contains `h` or `g` characters.
enabled_minutes	mixed	`false` all minutes are selectable	An array of selectable minutes. Applies only when `format` contains the `i` character. Valid values are between `0-59` (not padded with `0`!)
enabled_seconds	mixed	`false` all seconds are selectable	An array of selectable seconds. Applies only when `format` contains the `s` character. Valid values are between `0-59` (not padded with `0`!)
fast_navigation	boolean	`true`	Allows users to quickly navigate through months and years by clicking on the date picker's top label.
first_day_of_week	integer	`1` Monday	Week's starting day. Valid values are `0` to `6`, Sunday to Saturday.
format	string	`'Y-m-d'`	Format of the returned date. Accepts the following characters for date formatting: `d`, `D`, `j`, `l`, `N`, `w`, `S`, `F`, `m`, `M`, `n`, `Y`, `y`, `h`, `H`, `g`, `G`, `i`, `s`, `a`, `A`, borrowing the syntax from PHP's date function. If `format` property contains time-related characters (`g`, `G`, `h`, `H`, `i`, `s`, `a`, `A`), the time picker will be automatically enabled. If you want to use a format that involves time but you don't want the time picker, set the `disable_time_picker` property to true. Note that when setting a date format without days (`d`, `j`), the users will be able to select only years and months, and when setting a format without months and days (`F`, `m`, `M`, `n`, `t`, `d`, `j`), the users will be able to select only years. Similarly, setting a format that contains only time-related characters, will result in users being able to only select time. Setting a time format containing `a` or `A` (12-hour format) but using `H` or `G` as the hour's format will result in the hour's format being automatically changed to `h` or `g`, respectively. Also note that the value of the `view` property may be overridden if it is the case (i.e. a value of `days` for the `view` property makes no sense if the date format doesn't allow the selection of days).
header_captions	object	`header_captions: {` `days: 'F, Y',` `months: 'Y',` `years: 'Y1 - Y2'` `}`	Captions in the date picker's header, for the 3 applicable views: `days`, `months`, `years` For each of the 3 views the following special characters may be used borrowing from PHP's date function's syntax: `m`, `n`, `F`, `M`, `y` and `Y`; any of these will be replaced at runtime with the appropriate date fragment, depending on the currently viewed date. Two more special characters are also available `Y1` and `Y2` (upper case representing years with 4 digits, lowercase representing years with 2 digits) which represent `currently selected year - 7` and `currently selected year + 4` and which are used only in the `years` view. Even though any of these special characters may be used in any of the 3 views, you should use `m`, `n`, `F`, `M` for the `days` view and `y`, `Y`, `Y1`, `Y2`, `y1`, `y2` for the `months` and `years` view or you may get unexpected results! Text and HTML can also be used, and will be rendered as it is, as in the example below (the library is smart enough to not replace special characters when used in words or HTML tags): `header_captions: {` `days: 'Departure:<br>F, Y',` `months: 'Departure:<br>Y',` `years: 'Departure:<br>Y1 - Y2'` `}`
icon_margin	mixed	`false`	The left and right white-space around the icon If the `inside` property is set to `true` then the target element's padding will be altered so that the element's left or right padding (depending on the value of `icon_position`) will be `2 x icon_margin` plus the icon's width. If the `inside` property is set to `false`, then this will be the distance between the element and the icon. Leave it to `false` to use the element's existing padding
icon_position	string	`'right'`	Icon's position. Accepted values are `left` and `right`
inside	boolean	`true`	Should the icon for opening the date picker be inside the element? If set to `false`, the icon will be placed to the right of the parent element, while if set to `true` it will be placed to the right of the parent element, but inside the element itself
lang_clear_date	string	`'Clear'`	the caption for the Clear button.
months	array	`['January', 'February', 'March', 'April', 'May', 'June', 'July', 'August', 'September', 'October', 'November', 'December'],`	Month names
months_abbr	mixed	`false`	Abbreviated names of months. By default, the abbreviated name of a month consists of the first 3 letters from the month's full name. While this is common for most languages, there are also exceptions for languages like Thai, Loa, Myanmar, etc. where this is not correct. For these cases, specify an array with the abbreviations to be used for the months of the year; leave it `false` to use the first 3 letters of a month's name as the abbreviation.
navigation	Array	`navigation: ['◀', '▶', '▲', '▼']`	HTML to be used for the previous/next and up/down buttons, in that order.
offset	array	`[5, -5]`	The offset, in pixels (x, y), to shift the date picker's position after it was positioned according to the value of the `default_position` property. For optimal results, if `default_position` property contains the word "above", the value of `y` should negative, and positive otherwise. Also, if `default_position` property contains the word "right", the value of `x` should be positive, and negative otherwise.
open_icon_only	boolean	`false`	When set to `true`, the date picker will show only when users click on the associated icon, and not also when clicking the associated element.
open_on_focus	boolean	`false`	Set this property to `true` if you want the date picker to be shown when the parent element (if `open_icon_only` is not set to `false`) or the associated calendar icon (if `show_icon` is not set to `false`) receive focus.
pair	object	`false` not paired with another date picker	If set as one or more jQuery elements with Zebra Datepicker attached, those particular date pickers will use the current date picker's value as starting date Note that the rules set in the `direction` property will still apply but the reference date will not be the current system date but the value selected in the current date picker. Use this property only on the date picker containing the "starting date" and not also on the one with the "ending date", or the `direction` property of the second date picker will not work as expected!
readonly_element	boolean	`true`	Should the element the calendar is attached to, be read-only? If set to `true`, a date can be set only through the date picker and cannot be entered manually.
rtl	boolean	`false`	Whether text should be drawn from right to left.
select_other_months	boolean	`false`	Should days from previous and/or next month be selectable when visible? Note that if the value of this property is set to `true`, the value of `show_other_months` will be considered `true` regardless of the actual value!
show_clear_date	mixed	`0`	Should the Clear date button be visible? Accepted values are: `0` - the button for clearing a previously selected date is shown only if a previously selected date already exists; this means that if there's no date selected, this button will not be visible; once the user picked a date and opens the date picker again, this time the button will be visible. `true` will make the button visible all the time `false` will disable the button
show_icon	mixed	`Pick a date`	Should a calendar icon be added to the elements the plugin is attached to? Set this property's value to boolean `false` if you don't want the calendar icon. Note that the text is not visible by default since `text-indentation` is set to a big negative value in the CSS, so you might want to change that in case you want to make the text visible. When not set to boolean `false` the plugin will attach a calendar icon to the elements the plugin is attached to.
show_other_months	boolean	`true`	Should days from previous and/or next month be visible?
show_select_today	mixed	`'Today'`	Should the Today button be visible? Setting this property to anything but a boolean `false` will enable the button and will use the property's value as caption for the button. Setting it to `false` will disable the button.
show_week_number	mixed	`false`	Should the ISO 8601 week number be displayed? Anything other than `false` will enable this feature, and use the given value as column title. For example, `show_week_number: 'Wk'` would enable this feature and have Wk as the column's title.
start_date	mixed	`false`	A default date to start the date picker with Must be specified in the format defined by the `format` property, or as a JavaScript Date object If you have a date format that contains time and you need to set a default time but the date should be the current date, here's one way of doing it: Prior to version `1.9.11`: `var date = new Date(); // have this somewhere` `// set the start_date property like` `start_date: date.getFullYear() + '-' +` `(date.getMonth() + 1 < 10 ? '0' : '') +` `(date.getMonth() + 1) + '-' +` `(date.getDate() < 10 ? '0' : date.getDate()) +` `' 12:00'` Starting with version `1.9.11`: `start_date: new Date()` Note that this value is used only if there is no value in the field the date picker is attached to! The property's value can be a JavaScript Date object since version 1.9.11
strict	boolean	`false`	Should default values, in the input field the date picker is attached to, be deleted if they are not valid according to `direction` and/or `disabled_dates`?
view	string	`'days'`	How should the date picker start: Valid values are `days`, `months`, `years` and `time`. Note that the date picker is always cycling `days -> months -> years` when clicking in the date picker's header, and `years -> months -> days` when selecting dates (skipping the views that are missing because of the date's format) The value of the `view` property may be overridden if the date's format requires so! (i.e. `days` for the `view` property makes no sense if the date format doesn't allow the selection of days)
weekend_days	Array	`[0, 6]` Saturday and Sunday	Days of the week that are considered weekend days Valid values are `0` to `6`, Sunday to Saturday.
zero_pad	boolean	`false`	Should day numbers < 10 be padded with zero? When set to `true`, day numbers < 10 will be prefixed with `0`.

Events

`onChange`

Callback to be executed whenever the user changes the view (days/months/years/time), as well as when the user navigates by clicking on the next/previous icons in any of the views;

The callback function receives 2 arguments

the current view (days, months, years or time)
an array containing the active elements (not disabled) from the view, as jQuery elements, allowing for easy customization and interaction with particular cells in the date picker's view

The this keyword inside the callback function refers to the element the date picker is attached to, as a jQuery object.
To get the plugin's properties do properties = this.data('Zebra_DatePicker').

For simplifying searching for particular dates, each element gets a date data attribute whose format depends on the value of the view argument as follows:

YYYY-MM-DD for elements in the days view
YYYY-MM for elements in the months view
YYYY for elements in the years view

Note that this data attribute is not also set for elements in the time view.

Here's how we could highlight the 24^th day of each month of each year:

$('selector').Zebra_DatePicker({

    //  execute a function whenever the user changes the view
    //  (days/months/years), as well as when the user
    //  navigates by clicking on the "next"/"previous" icons
    //  in any of the views
    onChange: function(view, elements) {

        //  on the "days" view...
        if (view === 'days') {

            //  iterate through the active elements in the view
            elements.each(function() {

                //  to simplify searching for particular dates,
                //  each element gets a "date" data attribute which
                //  is the form of:
                //  - YYYY-MM-DD for elements in the "days" view
                //  - YYYY-MM for elements in the "months" view
                //  - YYYY for elements in the "years" view

                //  so, because we're on a "days" view,
                //  let's find the 24th day using a regular
                //  expression (notice that this will apply to
                //  every 24th day of every month of every year)
                if ($(this).data('date').match(/\-24$/))

                    // and highlight it!
                    $(this).css({
                        backgroundColor:    '#C40000',
                        color:              '#FFF'
                    });

            });

        }

    }

});

`onClear`

Callback function to be executed when the user clicks the Clear button.

The callback function takes no arguments. The this keyword inside the callback function refers to the element the date picker is attached to, as a jQuery object.
To get the plugin's properties do properties = this.data('Zebra_DatePicker').

`onClose`

Callback function to be executed when the date picker is closed.

`onOpen`

Callback function to be executed when the date picker is shown.

`onSelect`

Callback function to be executed when a date is selected.

The callback function takes 3 arguments:

the date in the format specified by the format attribute
the date in YYYY-MM-DD format and additionally hours, minutes and seconds if time picker is enabled
the date as a JavaScript Date object

this inside the callback function refers to the element the date picker is attached to, as a jQuery object.
To get the plugin's properties do properties = this.data('Zebra_DatePicker').

Methods

First, get a reference to the plugin like

var datepicker = $('selector').data('Zebra_DatePicker');

Then call a method like

datepicker.update();

`clear_date()`

Clears the selected date (if any)

`destroy()`

Removes the plugin from an element

`set_date(date)`

Sets the value of the element the date picker is attached to, to the specified date;

The date must be in the format defined by the format property or a JavaScript Date object.

The date will not be set if it is disabled (either because of disabled_dates or because of direction properties)

The method's argument can be a JavaScript Date object since version 1.9.11

`show()`

Shows the date picker (unless the always_visible property is set to true)

`hide()`

Hides the date picker (unless the always_visible property is set to true)

`update([options])`

Updates configuration options at run-time, and recalculates date picker's icon position relative to the parent element. You should call this method whenever you show/hide/reposition the parent element, or alter the parent element's dimensions.

The method accepts an optional argument - an object with configuration options to update:

var datepicker = $('selector').data('Zebra_DatePicker');
datepicker.update({
    direction: 1
});

If you just want to update the icon's position, simply call the method without any arguments:

var datepicker = $('selector').data('Zebra_DatePicker');
datepicker.update();

Global options

If you have multiple date pickers that share common options you can set these options like this:

// this needs to be called only once and does
// not have to be called from within a "ready" block!
$.fn.Zebra_DatePicker.defaults = {
    // any valid options
}

Any options set like this will be applied to all the newly created date picker. Obviously, options set at the creation of any new date picker would overwrite the respective defaults.

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