<iw_if> expression for today's date

Assuming I have the following in a .tpl:

iw_iterate list='dcr.Alerts' var='alert'
iw_if expr= '{iw_value name="alert.ExpireDate"/} < $Today '

I'm trying to compare the expiration date in my .dcr to today. Does anyone have a quick and slick way to do this? I could write a javascript function and get the date?

Part II - Attempting the javascript route

iw_perl
my $mydate = SCRIPT todayStr(); /SCRIPT
/iw_perl

h4 align="left" Date: {iw_value name='$mydate'/} /h4

The value between the h4 tags is blank...

Maybe I should post this in the perl section? (help)

-Dave

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Adam Stoller

Assuming I have the following in a .tpl:

iw_iterate list='dcr.Alerts' var='alert'
iw_if expr= '{iw_value name="alert.ExpireDate"/} < $Today '

I'm trying to compare the expiration date in my .dcr to today. Does anyone have a quick and slick way to do this? I could write a javascript function and get the date?

Part II - Attempting the javascript route

iw_perl
my $mydate = SCRIPT todayStr(); /SCRIPT
/iw_perl

h4 align="left" Date: {iw_value name='$mydate'/} /h4

The value between the h4 tags is blank...

Maybe I should post this in the perl section? (help)

-Dave

You opened a perl block to write javascript?

You're half right - the perl block is good - but you want to use Perl code to get the date.

The first issue is to make sure you know the format of the value in alert.ExpireDate. Is it:

Depending on the answer you may be able to use a built-in function like localtime, or you may need to use a module like Date::Format or Date::Manip.You cannot compare two date-strings with '<' unless they are both of purely numerical form (e.g.: "20061206" or "20061206171126").If you are dealing with date-strings you'll need to use some function to either convert the date string into a numerical form that can be compared with another numerical form or use some function that takes date strings and does the conversion for you.Again - I refer you to the perldoc for Date::Format and Date::Manip.

djo2112

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction and I appreciate taking your time to reply as well!

-Dave

P.S. I promise to go the perl route! :-)

djo2112

OK, I tried going the perl route! I was wondering if I needed to include some declarations in the .tpl?

Here's what I have come up with so far:

iw_perl
my $string1 = localtime(time);
my $date1 = ParseDate($string1);
/iw_perl

The $string1 variable is being populated however the compiler doesn't like the "ParseDate" statement. I'm also planning to use:

my $flag = Date_Cmp($date1, $date2);

Will I run into the same issue? I did use the command line compiler as the GUI really didn't give a descriptive error message: Could not process template..

Thanks!

-Dave

Adam Stoller

OK, I tried going the perl route! I was wondering if I needed to include some declarations in the .tpl?

Here's what I have come up with so far:

iw_perl
my $string1 = localtime(time);
my $date1 = ParseDate($string1);
/iw_perl

The $string1 variable is being populated however the compiler doesn't like the "ParseDate" statement. I'm also planning to use:

my $flag = Date_Cmp($date1, $date2);

Will I run into the same issue? I did use the command line compiler as the GUI really didn't give a descriptive error message: Could not process template..

Thanks!

-Dave

Without seeing the entire section of Perl code it's difficult to diagnose.

Did you include the line:

use Date::Manip;

If you're on Windows - did you explicitly set the TZ environment variable? e.g.:

BEGIN{ $ENV{TZ} = "US/Pacific"; };

I just created a simple script on my Mac using your code above as a basis:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use Date::Manip;
my $string1 = localtime(time);
my $date1 = ParseDate($string1);
my $flag1 = Date_Cmp($date1, "yesterday");
my $flag2 = Date_Cmp($date1, "today");
my $flag3 = Date_Cmp($date1, "tomorrow");

print "S: $string1\nD: $date1\n($flag1, $flag2, $flag3)\n";

and it results in the following:

S: Fri Dec  8 18:26:32 2006
 2006120818:26:32
(1, 0, -1)

Hopefully that helps.

djo2112

In an effort to bear my soul, I have hacked together a non-working solution to my dilemma. Continuing this thread, I'd like to call the perl from my .tpl - I have pasted the relavent stuff below for comments and critiques. The line that contains the iw_if continues to be the source of my issues. It seems I can not call the perl I have embedded in the page. Please feel free to point out my obvious mistake(s). -Dave

[html]

sub good_Date
# If the passed date is less than or equal to today, its good!
{
# get passed date
my ($date1) = shift (@_);
# get today's date in YYYYMMDD
my $string1 = localtime(time);
my $date2 = ParseDate($string1);

# Compare two dates - Date_Cmp will return 1,0,-1 if yesterday,today,tomorrow
my $flag = Date_Cmp($date2, $date1);
if ( $flag < 0 )
{
# date2 is earlier
return 0;
}
else
{
# date1 is equal or earlier
return 1;
}
}

[/html]

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jencycsrvr11.21545.dianbo-194.2011Jan27_13_49_22_China_Standard_Time.0.txt

Adam Stoller

In an effort to bear my soul, I have hacked together a non-working solution to my dilemma. Continuing this thread, I'd like to call the perl from my .tpl - I have pasted the relavent stuff below for comments and critiques. The line that contains the iw_if continues to be the source of my issues. It seems I can not call the perl I have embedded in the page. Please feel free to point out my obvious mistake(s). -Dave

[html]

sub good_Date
# If the passed date is less than or equal to today, its good!
{
# get passed date
my ($date1) = shift (@_);
# get today's date in YYYYMMDD
my $string1 = localtime(time);
my $date2 = ParseDate($string1);

# Compare two dates - Date_Cmp will return 1,0,-1 if yesterday,today,tomorrow
my $flag = Date_Cmp($date2, $date1);
if ( $flag < 0 )
{
# date2 is earlier
return 0;
}
else
{
# date1 is equal or earlier
return 1;
}
}

[/html]

There are a couple of things that aren't clear from your snippet of code:

djo2112

For clairty's sake, I posted the contiguous page up to the /iwiterate

[html]

 <html> <head> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <title>{iw_value name='dcr.PageTitle'/}</title>  <Link Rel="stylesheet" Type="text/css" Href="/Site/OpsComm.css"> 

 sub good_Date # If the passed date is less than or equal to today, its good! { # get passed date my ($date1) = shift (@_); # get today's date in YYYYMMDD my $string1 = localtime(time); my $date2 = ParseDate($string1); # Compare two dates - Date_Cmp will return 1,0,-1 if yesterday,today,tomorrow my $flag = Date_Cmp($date2, $date1); if ( $flag < 0 ) { # date2 is earlier return 0; } else { # date1 is equal or earlier return 1; } } 

 </head> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <h4 align="left">{iw_value name='dcr.PageHeading'/}</h4>   <table class="pageText" width="300" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> 

[/html]

Adam Stoller

I still don't see a

use Date::Manip;

in there. Without that, I wouldn't expect the code to work at all.

djo2112

You are correct and I apologize for missing it! I have added it and now I get a syntax error in the line:

[html]

[/html]

What I am trying to do is pass the value that I am reading from the DCR. What is the proper syntax? Do I need perl tags around the sub call?

-Dave

nipper

Do you need to make this run for multiple variables or just one ?

You do not need the code to be a sub. You can make the perl execute just one the parameter and set a variable that can be checked after the fact.

If you need to run this for a lot of fields, then you need a tiny bit of perl in iw_perl tags that sets a variable and then you can check with iw_if and the iw_value statements you use.

Andy

djo2112

Hi Andy,

It's just the one date variable I am trying to compare.

Since I am not a PERL programmer, I thought I would delve into it and get some practice. If you have a better "iw_if", by all means, let me know!

I like the idea of setting once and comparing many! Like this:

[html]

[/html]

Thanks!

-Dave

Adam Stoller

You are correct and I apologize for missing it! I have added it and now I get a syntax error in the line:
<iw_if expr= ' good_Date( {iw_value name="alerts.ExpireDate"/} ); eq 1 ' >
What I am trying to do is pass the value that I am reading from the DCR. What is the proper syntax? Do I need perl tags around the sub call?

-Dave

Try removing the semicolon highlighted above.

djo2112

Gents,

Thank you VERY much for your help as I am in business!

-Dave

djo2112

OK, now I'm digging in and being more efficient! :-)

Modifying your prior example I have the following:


use Date::Manip;
use Time:arseDate;
# get today's date
my $string1 = localtime(time);
# format date
my $date1 = parsedate($string1);
my $flag1 = Date_Cmp($date1, "tomorrow");

The problem line is the last, assigning $flag1 variable...

a) Why doesn't it like tomorrow in my Windows environment?
b) Do I have any tools available to me in Teamsite to diagnose this issue myself? After trying to re-gen the page, "Could not process template" really doesn't help me understand my issue. Thanks!

-Dave

Adam Stoller

OK, now I'm digging in and being more efficient! :-)

Modifying your prior example I have the following:
use Date::Manip;
use Time:arseDate;
# get today's date
my $string1 = localtime(time);
# format date
my $date1 = parsedate($string1);
my $flag1 = Date_Cmp($date1, "tomorrow");
The problem line is the last, assigning $flag1 variable...

a) Why doesn't it like tomorrow in my Windows environment?
b) Do I have any tools available to me in Teamsite to diagnose this issue myself? After trying to re-gen the page, "Could not process template" really doesn't help me understand my issue. Thanks!

-Dave

Try adding the following to your code:

BEGIN{
    $ENV{TZ} = "US/Eastern";
};

(replace US/Eastern as appropriate - see Date::Manip perldoc for details)

Alternatively - set the TZ System environment variable on your server, which should obviate the need for the BEGIN block.

On Unix this isn't needed because Unix servers set the timezone information, but Windows servers do not tend to do this and Date::Manip requires it.

djo2112

Setting the timezone environment variable in the BEGIN block did the trick!

Again, thanks for the good advice and excellent help and I will investigate setting the variable on my server.

-Dave