Today's date in DCR?

krishna1

Hey,

How can I have a DCR come up with today's date by default?

I am sure many users have done it already.

Thanks

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JamJamT

Just to clarify, do you want the DCT to automatically populate a date field when creating a new DCR?

krishna1

Yes! Exactly that is what I want to do.

JamJamT

Your DCT needs to use an inline element to call a Perl script, where the Perl script returns todays date. The following example populates a DCT <text> box.

DCT:

<item name="Publish Date">
<label>Publish Date</label>
<text required="t">
<inline command = 'perl \iw-home/local/bin/format_date.ipl'/>
</text>
</item>

Perl Script (format_date.ipl):

#!c:\iw-home/iw-perl/bin/iwperl

use Time::Local;

($sec,$min,$hour,$mday,$mon,$year,$wday,$yday,$isdst) =localtime(time);
$mon_text = (qw(Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec))[$mon];
$year = $year + 1900;

$formatted_date = "$mday-$mon_text-$year";

print <<EOF;
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<substitution><default>$formatted_date</default></substitution>
EOF

Hope that helps,
--Jeff

krishna1

Worked nicely. Thanks.

Migrateduser

This only works the first time you create/edit the DCR. Once a date has been placed in the field, the inline does not update the value on future edits. Therefore, what you end up having is the creation date instead of today's date (or effectively a last modified date).

One possible solution is to insert the date from the presentation side. For example, if the purpose is to have a last modified date on a web page, then the following solution will get you there.

<iw_perl>
<![CDATA[
$dcrname = iwpt_get_dcr_name();
]]>
</iw_perl>
....
Last Updated: <iw_system command='iwattrib $dcrname moddate'/>

ela

Hi,
I've tried this function too, and it works fine. But, I would like to get a two digits format like 23.07.2002. How do I do that? Now I get 23.7.2002.
Kind regards
Ela

tvaughan

You could add this line:

$year = $year + 1900;
$year =~ s/\d\d(\d\d)/$1/;

Here's the breakdown:


$year =~          # assign var $year to the result of this regex
s/                # search at replace the $year var
\d\d              # first two digits
(\d\d)            # save the next two digits (the "( )" means "save")
/$1/              # replace $year with the first thing I saved

Migrateduser

Just a quibble, but the pattern binding operator, =~, does not do assignment. Instead, it associates a regex with a variable. In your specific example, the result is basically the same as if you were doing an assignment, but you can also use the pattern binding operator with just a match operator, m// instead of a substitution, e.g.

$myVar =~ /(.*)foo(.*)/;

After executing the above, $myVar will not have changed, but the match will have been done and you can use $1 and $2 to retrieve the text before ($1) and after ($2) the substring "foo".

Alternatively, you could use an assignment in a list context, e.g.

my ($before, $after) = ($myVar =~ /(.*)foo(.*)/);

Cheers
Rob Huffstedtler
rob@bagpipe.com

ela

Thanks a lot for your quick answer! However, I'm afraid I wasn't quite clear about what I needed. Tried out your suggestion. Removing digits seems to be no problem, but adding them is more difficult ;-)

I've modified JamJamT's code (see above) and my format_date.ipl now looks like this:

#!/app/teamsite/iw-home/iw-perl/bin/iwperl

use Time::Local;

($sec,$min,$hour,$mday,$mon,$year,$wday,$yday,$isdst) =localtime(time);
$year = $year + 1900;
$mon = $mon + 1;

$formatted_date = "$mday.$mon.$year";

print <<EOF;
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<substitution><default>$formatted_date</default></substitution>
EOF

I need the date in this format: dd.mm.yyyy
What I've got now is: d.m.yyyy
which means that I need to add a 0 before the days and months with only one digit (e.g. 1 -> 01).
I suppose this is basic knowledge for profis, but I haven't come there yet ;-)

Any suggestions?

Migrateduser

Take advantage of the weak typing in perl:

if ($day < 10) {
$day = "0" . $day;
}

Or, if you wanted to be a little cleaner, use the sprintf function to create $formatted_date:

my $formatted_date = sprintf("%02d.%02d.%04d", $day, $month, $year);

Also, I'm not sure why you're including Time::Local when you aren't using it.

Cheers,
Rob Huffstedtler
rob@bagpipe.com

tvaughan

Doesn't the "s" in front of the first slash "/" do a search and replace?

So, if $myVar was "apple", this expression would return "true":
$myVar =~ /(.*)pp(.*)/;

And this expression would change "apple" to "ale":
$myVar =~ s/(.*)pp(.*)/$1$2/;

we should probably end this thread after your response, because discussions about regexs are almost never fruitful or conclusive ;-)

Tom

Migrateduser

Yes, but that's a different issue. s/// and m// are two different operators, but both do regex things (m// only does matching, s/// does substitution). The pattern binding operator, =~, is used to associate the matching/substitution operation with a particular string. If not supplied, both m// and s/// will operate against $_ by default. The same applies to !~, the negative pattern binding operator. In neither case does it do anything resembling assignment. Note, that =~ and !~ do not have a return value, so the return value of the regex operation is passed through. In a scalar context, this will be 1 (indicating a match) or 0 for m//, and the number of substitutions performed, for s///. In a list context, both will return the contents of any capturing parentheses.

I would recommend a quick read of both the perlop and perlre perldocs if this is not 100% clear to you, since I have just covered with perhaps more succinctness than will be useful to the average person.

If you are interested in a yet more thorough elaboration, I highly recommend Jeff Friedl's Mastering Regular Expressions (O'Reilly). Jeff has a new version of it coming out in a month or so, though, so you might want to hold off a bit.

Lastly, I would disagree that discussions about regexs are almost never fruitful or conclusive. The only point worth debating is whether you want to optimise for readability or for execution efficiency. Beyond that, if you understand in general how an NDFA engine works, and specifically how it is implemented in perl5.005_03, it's very simple to walk through a regex and determine conclusively how it would apply to a given string.

Alternatively, if you don't feel the urge to become a regex guru, you can find a number of test programs on the internet, such as http://www.csc.vill.edu/~dmatusze/resources/perl/regex/test-regex.html that implement at least a subset of the perl5 syntax (now a misnomer since it is not identical between 5.005_03, 5.6, and 5.8) and allow you to supply a test string and a test regex and play with it until you get the result you want.

Hope that is helpful to you
(and that I didn't come across as a conceited jerk)
Rob Huffstedtler
rob@bagpipe.com

ela

Thanks a lot, that worked!
You're right, I didn't actually need the use Time::Local;
I wish you all a wonderful day!

Adam Stoller

I'm not sure what the 'use Time::Local;' is for - but here's the code I would use:

#!.....iwperl -w
...
my @tm = localtime();
$tm[5] += 1900;
$tm[4] += 1;
# format as DD-MM-YYYY [US-centric]
$formatted_date = sprintf("%02d.%02d.%4d", @tm[3..5]);
# format as MM-DD-YYYY [European-centric]
$formatted_date = sprintf("%02d.%02d.%4d", @tm[4,3,5]);
# format in universal date format YYYY-MM-DD
$formatted_date = sprintf("%4d-%02d-%02d", @tm[5,4,3]);
...

I prefer the latter because in the long run it is far less confusing when seen from across the pond (in either direction) *and* it sorts very nicely.

Hope that helps.

--fish

brooke

Hi! This is exactly what I'm looking to do -- embed a date that does not update! It looks like this code "clicked" for others, but I seem to be having an error. Specifically, this:

A MessageException was thrown: com.interwoven.clientutils100.TMessageException: Error building the requirements for java.io.ByteArrayInputStream@7de0d5: CreateProcess: perl \iw-home/local/bin/format_date.ipl error=2

when I try to create a new DCR. I've placed the perl script in the proper dir, and placed the new code in the DCT.

Any ideas?

Thanks so much,
Brooke

caseym

I'm wondering if you were able to reach a solution in which your inline updated the date after each edit as well as on creation. We have the same problem, and while adding the date via the presentation template works for most cases, it does not work for straight data deployed DCRs that do not have a presentation template applied to them. Would love to hear about any other possible solutions... thanks!

Migrateduser

You should be able to do it with an onSave event (believe that's the right name for the event) in FormAPI (if you are running 5.5.2).

PCL6_TEST.zip

bert1

How could I get the actual date into the text-field each time I do open the DCR for future edit? Thanks for any idea!

S_Hoaen

Hi

I have tried calling the inline command suggested but recieve the following error...

Templating Error Page
An internal problem was encountered trying to create a requirements object for type schools/main.

Can anyone help?

Adam Stoller

Please post the line in your DCT where you do the inline, with about 3-5 lines of context on each side of it, and attach the actual inline script you are using.

--fish
Senior Consultant, Quotient Inc.
http://www.quotient-inc.com

nipper

Post what you are trying to run. That code should work, so it may not be in your env properly.
Where is perl installed on your system ?

Andy

S_Hoaen

Hi Fish

My DCT element is as follows.....

<item name="date">
<label>Date</label>
<description>Today's Date</description>
<text required="t">
<inline command="c:\\iw-home\\iw-perl\\bin\\iwperl c:\\iw-home\\local\\bin\\format_date.ipl"/>
</text>

</item>

...and my format_date.ipl looks as follows....

#!c:\iw-home/iw-perl/bin/iwperl

use Time::Local;

($sec,$min,$hour,$mday,$mon,$year,$wday,$yday,$isdst) =localtime(time);
$mon_text = (qw(Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec))[$mon];
$year = $year + 1900;

$formatted_date = "$mday-$mon_text-$year";

print <<EOF;
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<substitution><default>$formatted_date</default></substitution>
EOF

...I'm running TS 5.5.2 SP4.

Very grateful for any help you can offer.

nipper

Since I am using Unix I cannot help on NT, but try this:

Change your ipl to

print <<EOF;
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<substitution><default>26-May-2004</default></substitution>
EOF

THat will tell if it is the perl code or the inline

S_Hoaen

Thanks for the quick response nipper but alas no joy. Anyone got any other bright ideas?