Script to change date field format

[Guest]

I have several forms each eith 20 to 30 fields which have no formatting and are just text fields.  I want to programmatically change all fields with name containing "date" to mm/dd/yyyyy format. Is this possible?

I am new to Adobe scripting but I know some javascript. I could not find a method to change the field format from Adobe's JS guide and some quick internet searches did not yield anything that I could work on.

[maxwyss]

You can not directly change the field format using JavaScript. But you can add a format script using the setAction() method. This method allows to add a JavaScript to a list of events of the Field processing event sequence.

What you'd have to know, however, is where the Date Object comes from (be it a variable, or be it just "now"). The example below assumes that the current date should be used.

In order to set the format of the date, we use the util.printd() method.

Example; you would run this code from the Console while the document is open.

this.getField("date").setAction("Format", "event.value = util.printd(\"mm/dd/yyyy\", new Date() ) ;") ;

And that should get you on the way.

Hope this can help.

[Guest]

Max, thanks for the response. I made some progress but I am stuck with this:

var mymatch = new RegExp("date");

for (var i = 0; i < this.numFields; i++) {

    var fname = this.getNthFieldName(i);

    if (mymatch.test(fname)) {

    var f = this.getField(fname)  

    f.setAction({cTrigger: "Format", cScript: "AFDate_Format(\"mm/dd/yyyy\")"});

    f.setAction({cTrigger: "Keystroke", cScript: "AFDate_Keystroke(\"mm/dd/yyyy\")"});

    }

}

It sets the fields as date fields but the format is "m/d". Not "mm/dd/yyyy".  Any ideas?

[Guest]

I just discovered that the format is not enforced and I can type in any values in the box. The field property shows format as m/d but there is no restriction.

[maxwyss]

Unless you can precisely control these pre-cooked functions, don't use them (they are undocumented; until about Acrobat 5, the according script was available in the clear; later on, they replaced it with a precompiled library, with the goal to speed up the application loading time). It is very likely that the argument of AFDate_Format() and AFDate_Keystroke() are incorrect.

Also, I wonder why you are using the RegEx matching for the field name match; wouldn't

if (fname == "date")

be easier to deal with?

[Guest]

You are right. The right arguments are AFDate_FormatEx  and AFDate_KeystrokeEx.

I manually inserted AFDate_FormatEx("mm/dd/yyyy")  and AFDate_KeystrokeEx("mm/dd/yyyy") in the custom format options and it worked. Now, I need to figure out how to push this in there using JS.

    f.setAction({cTrigger: "Format", cScript: "AFDate_FormatEx(\"mm/dd/yyyy\");"});

    f.setAction({cTrigger: "Keystroke", cScript: "AFDate_KeystrokeEx(\"mm/dd/yyyy\");"});

I wonder if escaping quotes is not working.

I am looking at all fields which contain "date" in the name. There are fields like date of birth, date graduated, date first employed, etc.

[maxwyss]

OK, that explains the RegExp… you still could use something like

if (fname.toLowerCase().indexOf("date") >= 0)

It would be a long shot but try the direct syntax (not using the cTrigger / cScript)

You might also see whether it really inserts code by using something like app.beep() as script.

I may be wrong, but it is possible that if both, the Keystroke and the Format scripts are set, the date format dialog may appear instead of the custom script dialog.

[Guest]

cTrigger / cScript work. For example:

f.setAction({cTrigger: "Format", cScript: "AFSpecial_Format(0);"});

f.setAction({cTrigger: "Keystroke", cScript: "AFSpecial_Keystroke(0);"});

These set the field to Zip format and it works well. Similarly the following set it as Phone number format.

f.setAction({cTrigger: "Format", cScript: "AFSpecial_Format(3);"});

f.setAction({cTrigger: "Keystroke", cScript: "AFSpecial_Keystroke(3);"});

It is the double quotes enclosing "mm/dd/yyyy" that seems to create the problem.

[maxwyss]

OK, as single quotes are also legal, try putting the format string between single quotes; in that case, there should be no need for backslashes.

[Colin Flashman]

Late to the party here but I think I have an answer and it lies in a linked reference:

http://www.acrotex.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/pdfblog_22.pdf

It goes into great detail how to apply formatting to a date field.

[Dieter296782539y20]

The acrotex site is down. Does anyone have some other source?

[Julio383019995re4]

I guess this one is the same: https://www.math.uakron.edu/~dpstory/PDFBlog/pdfblog_22.pdf

I have attached it to this post.

Regards,

    --Julio