Magento date format in advanced search

Question

My version is 1.8.1.0 (Community Edition).

I have a problem with the date format in magento frontend especially in the advanced search. I have add a custom attribute "event_date" with input type "Date".

Under Configuration->General I've set the locale to "France" and under Configuration->Catalog->Date & Time Custom Options I've set the Date Fields Order to Day/Month/Year.

But when I select a date in frontend with the datepicker in advanced search it adds it in US format. (Month/Day/Year)

What's really strange: The search only works with US format but the search validator expects the date format in d/m/y. I found out that the date format is hardcoded in "app/code/core/Mage/CatalogSearch/Block/Advanced/Form.php". If I change it in this file the calendar and validator work in the right format but I get no results because the search still needs the US format.

So what's the best way to force Magento to work in a specified date format?

UPDATE:

I also found out, if I set the browser prefered language to en_US the validation works with US (Month/Day/Year) format. So Magento seems to check the client locale and set the date validation to it, but not the date format from calendar or search itself.

UPDATE 2:

After I got no response I posted the same question but with a different description under https://magento.stackexchange.com/questions/16257/date-format-in-advanced-search.

Please have a look there. Finally I could solve 2 of the 3 problems so that my advanced search now runs with en_US date format. The last problem is: Where in code the db query is build for the advanced search and how can I switch to another date format? It seems like en_US date format is hardcoded.

Meabed Meabed · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-08T17:58:38

I have had similar issue with Date filter :)

The way date time instantiated in the form like that

Step 1:-

In Block Form class Mage_CatalogSearch_Block_Advanced_Form

public function getDateInput($attribute, $part = 'from')
{
    $name = $attribute->getAttributeCode() . '[' . $part . ']';
    $value = $this->getAttributeValue($attribute, $part);

    return $this->_getDateBlock()
        ->setName($name)
        ->setId($attribute->getAttributeCode() . ($part == 'from' ? '' : '_' . $part))
        ->setTitle($this->getAttributeLabel($attribute))
        ->setValue($value)
        ->setImage($this->getSkinUrl('images/calendar.gif'))
        ->setFormat('%m/%d/%y') //So you need change the Format here !!!!!
        ->setClass('input-text')
        ->getHtml();
}

So you need to change the Date format for the calendar in the line ->setFormat('%m/%d/%y')

! Take look about the supported datetime format here http://www.dynarch.com/jscal/#sec34

Then its used in the method below to generate the block

$block = $this->getLayout()->createBlock('core/html_date');
$this->setData('_select_block', $block);

and in that block class Mage_Core_Block_Html_Date

Line 40: $displayFormat = Varien_Date::convertZendToStrFtime($this->getFormat(), true, (bool)$this->getTime());
.......
Line53: ifFormat    : "' . $displayFormat . '",

Step 2:-

In the advanced search collection class Mage_CatalogSearch_Model_Resource_Advanced_Collection

You need to modify this method to allow the new locale or the new datatime format you needed !

Line43: public function addFieldsToFilter($fields) {
.......
.......
.......
.......
Line96: if (!Zend_Date::isDate($conditionValue['from'])) {
.......
Line109:if (!Zend_Date::isDate($conditionValue['to'])) {
.......
}

Now You need to modify those 2 lines with the new datetime format you change the search block to allow this method to be validated

For instance i modified the Javascript calendar format to be %d-%m-%Y which will produce Date in the calendar like ( 25-12-2014 )

Then i modified The method in the above collection class to be like this

if (!Zend_Date::isDate($conditionValue['from'], 'd-m-Y' )) { // I added the format for the validation 
.......
.......
if (!Zend_Date::isDate($conditionValue['to'], 'd-m-Y' )) { // same as above one

step 3:-

Change those value of date inputs in the class Mage_CatalogSearch_Model_Resource_Advanced_Collection to whatever format or locale.

Everything works fine with that.

I have made small module that rewrite the 2 classes you need to modify based on the locale you need

Check it out https://github.com/Meabed/magento-advanced-search-datetime-field

Regards !