INFORMATION FOR DEVELOPERS
Once the Date API is installed, all functions in the API are available to be used
anywhere by any module.
The API uses the PHP 5.2 date functions to create and manipulate dates.
Example, the following will create a date for the local value in one
timezone, adjust it to a different timezone, then return the offset in seconds
in the new timezone for the input date; The offset will be adjusted for both
the timezone difference and daylight savings time, if necessary:
$date = date_create('2007-03-11 02:00:00', timezone_open('America/Chicago'));
$chicago_time = date_format($date, 'Y-m-d H:i');
print 'At '. $chicago_time .' in Chicago, the timezone offset in seconds
was '. date_offset_get($date);
date_timezone_set($date, timezone_open('Europe/Berlin');
$berlin_time = date_format($date, 'Y-m-d H:i');
print 'It was '. $berlin_time .' in Berlin when it
was '. $chicago_time .' in Chicago.';
print 'At that time in Berlin, the timezone offset in seconds was
'. date_offset_get($date);
A helper function is available, date_make_date($string, $timezone, $type),
where $string is a unixtimestamp, an ISO date, or a string like YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS,
$timezone is the name of the timezone this date is in, and $type is the type
of date it is (DATE_UNIX, DATE_ISO, or DATE_DATETIME). It create and return
a date object set to the right date and timezone.
Simpletest tests for these functions are included in the package.
Available functions include the following (more documentation is provided in
the files):
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Preconfigured arrays
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Both translated and untranslated values are available. The date_week_days_ordered()
function will shift an array of week day names so it starts with the site's
first day of the week, otherwise the weekday names start with Sunday as the first
value, the expected order for many php and sql functions.
date_month_names();
date_month_names_abbr();
date_month_names_untranslated();
date_week_days();
date_week_days_abbr();
date_week_days_untranslated();
date_week_days_ordered();
date_years();
date_hours();
date_minutes();
date_seconds();
date_timezone_names();
date_ampm();
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Miscellaneous date manipulation functions
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Pre-defined constants and functions that will handle pre-1970 and post-2038
dates in both PHP 4 and PHP 5, in any OS. Dates can be converted from one
type to another and date parts can be extracted from any date type.
DATE_DATETIME
DATE_ISO
DATE_UNIX
DATE_ARRAY
DATE_OBJECT
DATE_ICAL
date_convert()
date_is_valid();
date_part_is_valid();
date_part_extract();
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Date calculation and navigation
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date_difference() will find the time difference between any two days, measured
in seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, weeks, or years.
date_days_in_month();
date_days_in_year();
date_weeks_in_year();
date_last_day_of_month();
date_day_of_week();
date_day_of_week_name();
date_difference();
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Date regex and format helpers
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Pre-defined constants, an array of date format strings and their
equivalent regex strings.
DATE_REGEX_LOOSE is a very loose regex that will pull date parts out
of an ISO date with or without separators, using either 'T' or a space
to separate date and time, and with or without time.
date_format_date() is similar to format_date(), except it takes a
date object instead of a timestamp as the first parameter.
DATE_FORMAT_ISO
DATE_FORMAT_DATETIME
DATE_FORMAT_UNIX
DATE_FORMAT_ICAL
DATE_REGEX_ISO
DATE_REGEX_DATETIME
DATE_REGEX_LOOSE
date_format_date();
date_t()
date_short_formats();
date_medium_formats();
date_long_formats();
date_format_patterns();
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Standardized ical parser and creator
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The iCal parser is found in date_api_ical.inc, which is not included by default.
Include that file if you want to use these functions:
Complete rewrite of ical imports to parse vevents, vlocations, valarms,
and all kinds of timezone options and repeat rules for ical imports.
The function now sticks to parsing the ical into an array that can be used
in various ways. It no longer trys to convert timezones while parsing,
instead a date_ical_date_format() function is provided that can be used to
convert from the ical timezone to whatever timezone is desired in the
results. Repeat rules are parsed into an array which other modules can
manipulate however they like to create additional events from the results.
date_ical_export();
date_ical_import();
date_ical_date_format();
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Helpers for portable date SQL
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The SQL functions are found in date_api_sql.inc, which is not included by default.
Include that file if you want to use these functions:
date_sql();
date_server_zone_adj();
date_sql_concat();
date_sql_pad();
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Date forms and validators
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Reusable, configurable, self-validating FAPI date elements are found in
date_api_elements.inc, which is not included by default. Include it
if you want to use these elements. To use them, create a form element
and set the '#type' to one of the following:
date_select
The date_select element will create a collection of form elements, with a
separate select or textfield for each date part. The whole collection will
get re-formatted back into a date value of the requested type during validation.
date_text
The date_text element will create a textfield that can contain a whole
date or any part of a date as text. The user input value will be re-formatted
back into a date value of the requested type during validation.
date_timezone
The date_timezone element will create a drop-down selector to pick a
timezone name.
The custom date elements require a few other pieces of information to work
correctly, like #date_format and #date_type. See the internal documentation
for more information.
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Date Popup Module
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A new module is included in the package that will enable a popup jQuery
calendar date picker and timepicker in date and time fields.
It is implemented as a custom form element, so set '#type' to 'date_popup'
to use this element. See the internal documentation for more information.
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Date Repeat API
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An API for repeating dates is available if installed. It can be used by
other modules to create a form element that will allow users to select
repeat rules and store those selections in an iCal RRULE string, and a
calculation function that will parse the RRULE and return an array of dates
that match those rules. The API is implemented in the Date module as a
new date widget if the Date Repeat API is installed.
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Install file for dependent modules
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The following code is an example of what should go in the .install file for
any module that uses the new Date API. This is needed to be sure the system
is not using an earlier version of the API that didn't include all these new
features. Testing for version '5.2' will pick up any version on or after the
change to the new API.
/**
* Implementation of hook_requirements().
*/
function calendar_requirements($phase) {
$requirements = array();
$t = get_t();
// This is the minimum required version for the Date API so that it will
work with this module.
$required_version = 5.2;
// Make sure the matching version of date_api is installed.
// Use info instead of an error at install time since the problem may
// just be that they were installed in the wrong order.
switch ($phase) {
case 'runtime':
if (variable_get('date_api_version', 0) < $required_version) {
$requirements['calendar_api_version'] = array(
'title' => $t('Calendar requirements'),
'value' => $t('The Calendar module requires a more current version
of the Date API. Please check for a newer version.'),
'severity' => REQUIREMENT_ERROR,
);
}
break;
case 'install':
if (variable_get('date_api_version', 0) < $required_version) {
$requirements['calendar_api_version'] = array(
'title' => $t('Calendar requirements'),
'value' => $t('The Calendar module requires the latest version
of the Date API, be sure you are installing the latest versions
of both modules.'),
'severity' => REQUIREMENT_INFO,
);
}
break;
}
return $requirements;
}
/**
* Implementation of hook_install().
*/
function calendar_install() {
// Make sure this module loads after date_api.
db_query("UPDATE {system} SET weight = 1 WHERE name = 'calendar'");
}
/**
* Implementation of hook_update().
*/
function calendar_update_5000() {
$ret = array();
$ret[] = update_sql("UPDATE {system} SET weight = 1 WHERE name = 'calendar'");
return $ret;
}