Implement convenient field for first log date

[TomaszGasior]

I think about compound field built using three inputs:

SELECT year | SELECT month | INPUT NUMBER day

Will be this more convenient than current plain text field or not?

[HyperDX]

Yes, it will be more comfortable but I have another idea. Choosing a date from the mini pop-up calendar. What do you think?

[TomaszGasior]

There are two ways to add this field:

• a) simplier and preferred by me: using built-in calendar provided by popular web browsers (Chrome, Firefox at least)
• b) using external JavaScript fancy calendar. I don't like this solution because it would make RL more heavy.

There is one special requirement for "first log date" field. Normally, when applications have some date-related fields, all information — day AND month AND year — are required from user to be filled in. "first log date" field is different, it must allow to user to put date in one of these formats:

• only year OR,
• year AND month OR,
• year AND month AND day.

Also, application must understand difference between 2018, 2018-01 and 2018-01-01 so for example we can't assume that first day of month means that we can ignore the day at all.

Unfortunately, calendar widgets provided by web browsers do not support our requirement of three possible formats — they always require both year and month and day. :( The only possible solution is to use external JavaScript calendar which I personally don't like. :(

Also, there is another question. Are RadioLista users more keyboard-oriented or more mouse-oriented? If RadioLista users are more keyboard-oriented, current solution based on simple text field is better for them.

As you can see, it's hard to decide, which direction choose.

[HyperDX]

Also, there is another question. Are RadioLista users more keyboard-oriented or more mouse-oriented? If RadioLista users are more keyboard-oriented, current solution based on simple text field is better for them.

Personally, I prefer typing date using keyboard. For me it's much faster than choosing from a calendar ;). Maybe this feature will be more convenient on mobile devices?

[TomaszGasior]

I will keep this issue open but I unassigned myself and added help wanted label: maybe someone else would want to implement this feature. Since there are some keyboard oriented users like me or @HyperDX there's one requirement: implementation must offer both ways of entering date: from the keyboard and optionally from visual calendar.

[TomaszGasior]

I want to keep here two ideas for implementation.

• Good looking date picker with proper usability: https://github.com/mymth/vanillajs-datepicker
• Input mask for making date format more obvious: https://github.com/RobinHerbots/Inputmask
• Interesting article: https://adrianroselli.com/2019/07/maybe-you-dont-need-a-date-picker.html