Date Format Options

Date values in EDP can be changed to display in a custom format. This can be useful for users that deal with multiple languages or regions where dates are represented differently. For example: U.S. date format is MM/dd/yyyy and the U.K. date format is dd/MM/yyyy. If the user thinks their local settings are set to U.K. but they are actually set to U.S., then when they enter a date like "5/4/2011" it will be interpreted as May 4, 2011 instead of April 5, 2011.

By adding the attribute edd:format to a field in the EQuIS Format Definition (EFD) file, the date format can be specified. The following example will make dates entered as "2011/4/5" show as "05-Apr-2011."

<xs:element name="Sample_Date" type="xs:date" nillable="true" edd:format="dd-MMM-yyyy">

If the field is a date time field, then the time portion will also need to be included in the attribute value.

<xs:element name="Sample_Date" type="xs:dateTime" nillable="true" edd:format="dd-MMM-yyyy HH:mm:ss">

To apply a custom date format to all date fields, the attribute will need to be added to each field in the format.

Note: Report Date Parameters will now be saved in International Date Format in the parameter configuration files.