MVC4 DataType.Date EditorFor won't display date value in Chrome, fine in Internet Explorer

Question

I'm using the DataType.Date attribute on my model and an EditorFor in my view. This is working fine in Internet Explorer 8 and Internet Explorer 9, but in Google Chrome it is showing a date picker and instead of displaying the value it just displays "Month/Day/Year" in faded gray text.

Why won't Google Chrome display the value?

Model:

[DataType(DataType.Date)]
public Nullable<System.DateTime> EstPurchaseDate { get; set; }

View:

<td class="fieldLabel">Est. Pur. Date</td>
<td class="field">@Html.EditorFor(m=>m.EstPurchaseDate)</td>

Answer 1

When you decorate a model property with [DataType(DataType.Date)] the default template in ASP.NET MVC 4 generates an input field of type="date":

<input class="text-box single-line" 
       data-val="true" 
       data-val-date="The field EstPurchaseDate must be a date."
       id="EstPurchaseDate" 
       name="EstPurchaseDate" 
       type="date" value="9/28/2012" />

Browsers that support HTML5 such Google Chrome render this input field with a date picker.

In order to correctly display the date, the value must be formatted as 2012-09-28. Quote from the specification:

value: A valid full-date as defined in [RFC 3339], with the additional qualification that the year component is four or more digits representing a number greater than 0.

You could enforce this format using the DisplayFormat attribute:

[DataType(DataType.Date)]
[DisplayFormat(DataFormatString = "{0:yyyy-MM-dd}", ApplyFormatInEditMode = true)]
public Nullable<System.DateTime> EstPurchaseDate { get; set; }

Answer 2

If you remove [DataType(DataType.Date)] from your model, the input field in Chrome is rendered as type="datetime" and won't show the datepicker either.

Answer 3

If you need to have control over the format of the date (in other words not just the yyyy-mm-dd format is acceptable), another solution could be adding a helper property that is of type string and add a date validator to that property, and bind to this property on UI.

    [Display(Name = "Due date")]
    [Required]
    [AllowHtml]
    [DateValidation]
    public string DueDateString { get; set; }

    public DateTime? DueDate 
    {
        get
        {
            return string.IsNullOrEmpty(DueDateString) ? (DateTime?)null : DateTime.Parse(DueDateString);
        }
        set
        {
            DueDateString = value == null ? null : value.Value.ToString("d");
        }
    }

And here is a date validator:

[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Property, AllowMultiple = true, Inherited = true)]
public class DateValidationAttribute : ValidationAttribute
{
    public DateValidationAttribute()
    {
    }

    protected override ValidationResult IsValid(object value, ValidationContext validationContext)
    {
        if (value != null)
        {
            DateTime date;

            if (value is string)
            {
                if (!DateTime.TryParse((string)value, out date))
                {
                    return new ValidationResult(validationContext.DisplayName + " must be a valid date.");
                }
            }
            else
                date = (DateTime)value;

            if (date < new DateTime(1900, 1, 1) || date > new DateTime(3000, 12, 31))
            {
                return new ValidationResult(validationContext.DisplayName + " must be a valid date.");
            }
        }
        return null;
    }
}

Answer 4

As an addition to Darin Dimitrov's answer:

If you only want this particular line to use a certain (different from standard) format, you can use in MVC5:

@Html.EditorFor(model => model.Property, new {htmlAttributes = new {@Value = @Model.Property.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd"), @class = "customclass" } })

Answer 5

In MVC5.2, add Date.cshtml to folder ~/Views/Shared/EditorTemplates:

@model DateTime?
@{
    IDictionary<string, object> htmlAttributes;
    object objAttributes;
    if (ViewData.TryGetValue("htmlAttributes", out objAttributes))
    {
        htmlAttributes = objAttributes as IDictionary<string, object> ?? HtmlHelper.AnonymousObjectToHtmlAttributes(objAttributes);
    }
    else
    {
        htmlAttributes = new RouteValueDictionary();
    }
    htmlAttributes.Add("type", "date");
    String format = (Request.UserAgent != null && Request.UserAgent.Contains("Chrome")) ? "{0:yyyy-MM-dd}" : "{0:d}";
    @Html.TextBox("", Model, format, htmlAttributes)
}

Answer 6

I still had an issue with it passing the format yyyy-MM-dd, but I got around it by changing the Date.cshtml:

@model DateTime?

@{
    string date = string.Empty;
    if (Model != null)
    {
        date = string.Format("{0}-{1}-{2}", Model.Value.Year, Model.Value.Month, Model.Value.Day);
    }

    @Html.TextBox(string.Empty, date, new { @class = "datefield", type = "date"  })
}

Answer 7

Reply to MVC4 DataType.Date EditorFor won't display date value in Chrome, fine in IE

In the Model you need to have following type of declaration:

[DataType(DataType.Date)]
public DateTime? DateXYZ { get; set; }

OR

[DataType(DataType.Date)]
public Nullable<System.DateTime> DateXYZ { get; set; }

You don't need to use following attribute:

[DisplayFormat(DataFormatString = "{0:yyyy-MM-dd}", ApplyFormatInEditMode = true)]

At the Date.cshtml use this template:

@model Nullable<DateTime>
@using System.Globalization;

@{
    DateTime dt = DateTime.Now;
    if (Model != null)
    {
        dt = (System.DateTime)Model;

    }

    if (Request.Browser.Type.ToUpper().Contains("IE") || Request.Browser.Type.Contains("InternetExplorer"))
    {
        @Html.TextBox("", String.Format("{0:d}", dt.ToShortDateString()), new { @class = "datefield", type = "date" })
    }
    else
    {
        //Tested in chrome
        DateTimeFormatInfo dtfi = CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("en-US").DateTimeFormat;
        dtfi.DateSeparator = "-";
        dtfi.ShortDatePattern = @"yyyy/MM/dd"; 
        @Html.TextBox("", String.Format("{0:d}", dt.ToString("d", dtfi)), new { @class = "datefield", type = "date" })
    } 
}

Have fun! Regards, Blerton

Answer 8

In MVC 3 I had to add:

using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;

among usings when adding properties:

[DataType(DataType.Date)]
[DisplayFormat(DataFormatString = "{0:yyyy-MM-dd}", ApplyFormatInEditMode = true)]

Especially if you are adding these properties in .edmx file like me. I found that by default .edmx files don't have this using so adding only propeties is not enough.