# Editor example Formatted dates (server-side)

Editor's `datetime` field type makes entering date and time information simple, but to increase user friendliness you may wish to use a custom date format (rather than the default ISO 8601 format) - this can be done with the momentjs library and specifying a `displayFormat` option for the field.

This example shows two different date fields which are displayed using different formats - the first is in the US m/d/y format while the second is a more verbose format (it also uses `keyInput: false` to disallow users from typing the input). The data loaded from the server (and submitted to it on create / edit) is in the format specified by the `displayFormat` option (this parameter is required so Editor's `datetime` input type can parse and understand the date). If the data to and from the server is in a different format from what you want to display see the formatting - client-side example.

This example also makes use of the datetime-moment sorting plug-in for DataTables to ensure that it can correctly sort the formatted date / time strings shown in the columns.

First name | Last name | Updated date | Registered date
--- | --- | --- | ---

- Javascript
- HTML
- CSS
- Ajax
- Server-side script

The Javascript shown below is used to initialise the table shown in this example:

`var editor; // use a global for the submit and return data rendering in the examples $(document).ready(function() { // Register date formats to allow DataTables sorting of the dates $.fn.dataTable.moment( 'M/D/YYYY' ); $.fn.dataTable.moment( 'dddd D MMMM YYYY' ); editor = new $.fn.dataTable.Editor( { ajax: '../../controllers/dates.php?format=custom', table: '#example', fields: [ { label: 'First name:', name: 'first_name' }, { label: 'Last name:', name: 'last_name' }, { label: 'Updated date:', name: 'updated_date', type: 'datetime', def: function () { return new Date(); }, format: 'M/D/YYYY', fieldInfo: 'US style m/d/y format' }, { label: 'Registered date:', name: 'registered_date', type: 'datetime', def: function () { return new Date(); }, format: 'dddd D MMMM YYYY', fieldInfo: 'Verbose date format', keyInput: false } ] } ); $('#example').DataTable( { dom: 'Bfrtip', ajax: '../../controllers/dates.php?format=custom', columns: [ { data: 'first_name' }, { data: 'last_name' }, { data: 'updated_date' }, { data: 'registered_date' } ], select: true, buttons: [ { extend: 'create', editor: editor }, { extend: 'edit', editor: editor }, { extend: 'remove', editor: editor } ] } ); } );`

In addition to the above code, the following Javascript library files are loaded for use in this example:

- https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/moment.js/2.18.1/moment.min.js
- https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.3.1.js
- https://cdn.datatables.net/1.10.20/js/jquery.dataTables.min.js
- https://cdn.datatables.net/buttons/1.6.0/js/dataTables.buttons.min.js
- https://cdn.datatables.net/select/1.3.1/js/dataTables.select.min.js
- ../../js/dataTables.editor.min.js
- //cdn.datatables.net/plug-ins/1.10.19/sorting/datetime-moment.js

The HTML shown below is the raw HTML table element, before it has been enhanced by DataTables:

This example uses a little bit of additional CSS beyond what is loaded from the library files (below), in order to correctly display the table. The additional CSS used is shown below:

``

The following CSS library files are loaded for use in this example to provide the styling of the table:

- https://cdn.datatables.net/1.10.20/css/jquery.dataTables.min.css
- https://cdn.datatables.net/buttons/1.6.0/css/buttons.dataTables.min.css
- https://cdn.datatables.net/select/1.3.1/css/select.dataTables.min.css
- ../../css/editor.dataTables.min.css

This table loads data by Ajax. The latest data that has been loaded is shown below. This data will update automatically as any additional data is loaded.

The script used to perform the server-side processing for this table is shown below. Please note that this is just an example script using PHP. Server-side processing scripts can be written in any language, using the protocol described in the DataTables documentation.