jQuery UI Datepicker - How to alter Datepicker HTML

Question

I need to make a few simple changes to the Datepicker HTML generated by the jQuery UI Datepicker e.g. adding some brief text after the calendar table.

I have been trying to do this using the beforeShow event, but while I can access the current HTML using this, manipulating it does not work:

beforeShow: function(input, inst) {
//#this works
alert($('#ui-datepicker-div').html());
//#this does nothing
$('#ui-datepicker-div').append('message');          
}

I think this might be because the Datepicker HTML elements are added to the Dom later and therefore the live method is needed to update the HTML, but I do not know how to hook up the live method with this function callback. Or I could well be approaching this in the wrong way altogether.

I would really appreciate if someone could help me out with this as I have searched and tried a lot of things but I can't seem to get this working. Thanks.

Answer 1

It seems like you need to wait till the .ui-datepicker-calendar table to be inserted into the #ui-datepicker-div to append your message. You could do a timer to check for that:

$('#datepicker').datepicker({
    beforeShow: function(input, inst) {
        insertMessage();
    }
});

// listen to the Prev and Next buttons
$('#ui-datepicker-div').delegate('.ui-datepicker-prev, .ui-datepicker-next', 'click', insertMessage);

function insertMessage() {
    clearTimeout(insertMessage.timer);

    if ($('#ui-datepicker-div .ui-datepicker-calendar').is(':visible'))
        $('#ui-datepicker-div').append('<div>foo</div>');
    else
        insertMessage.timer = setTimeout(insertMessage, 10);
}

See it in action: http://jsfiddle.net/william/M9Z7T/2/.

See it in action: http://jsfiddle.net/M9Z7T/126/.

Answer 2

   $('.datepicker').datepicker({ beforeShow: function () {
        setTimeout(appendsomething, 10);
    },
    onChangeMonthYear: function () {
        setTimeout(appendsomething, 10);
        }
    }
    );

var appendsomething = function () {
    $("#ui-datepicker-div").append("<div class='something'>something</div>");
}

Answer 3

I use the following trick to monkey-patch the _generateHTML function. The following example replaces some jQuery-ui classes with jQuery-mobile classes using regular expressions. Modify according to your needs:

(function () {
    $.datepicker._generateHTML_old = $.datepicker._generateHTML;
    $.datepicker._generateHTML = function (inst) {
        var html = this._generateHTML_old(inst);
        html = html.replace(/<a class="(ui-datepicker-prev ui-corner-all)( ui-state-disabled)?"/, '<a class="$1 ui-btn ui-btn-left ui-icon-carat-l ui-btn-icon-notext$2"');
        html = html.replace(/<a class="(ui-datepicker-next ui-corner-all)( ui-state-disabled)?"/, '<a class="$1 ui-btn ui-btn-right ui-icon-carat-r ui-btn-icon-notext$2"');
        html = html.replace(/<span class="ui-icon ui-icon-circle-triangle-.">(.+?)<\/span>/g, '$1');
        return html;
    };
})();

Edit: using regex/string functions to edit HTML is actually a bad idea. Consider placing the HTML inside an element, manipulate, and grab the resulting HTML.

Answer 4

It can be done as simply as this (this works with the new datepicker):

$('.datepicker').datepicker('show');
$(".ui-datepicker").append(<div>Foo</div>);

$(document).on('click', '.ui-datepicker-next', function () {
    $(".ui-datepicker").append(<div>Foo</div>);
})

$(document).on('click', '.ui-datepicker-prev', function () {
    $(".ui-datepicker").append(<div>Foo</div>);
})