[SOLVED] How to set date/time picker to current date time

Questions
1

I’ve got a form with a date/time picker.
I want it to automatically populate with the current date/time so that the user doesn’t have to manually select it.
If they leave the page open for a while the date/time picker doesn’t update to the NEW current date/time.

How can I get the date/time picker to update to the current, as of this moment, date/time (not the date/time when the page was loaded)?

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I tried using a condition, so when the dropdown is pressed the date/time is reset, but that’s not actually changing anything.

I tried using a workflow to set a custom state, but I don’t see anywhere to tell the date/time picker to update itself when that custom state changes

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I tried to reset the data in the date/time input but it gets reset back to what WAS the current time when the page was loaded.

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I tried to “display data” but the date/time input doesn’t show up in the list.
The date/time input also doesn’t have a “data source” I can change (like the repeating group does).

2

Add a custom state of type Date to the date time picker and set the Initial Value of the date time picker to the custom state.

On the workflow add a Do Every 1 Seconds to set the value of the custom state to “Current Date/Time”.

You might need to add a couple of other things so that if the user does choose a value manually, it stops auto updating.

See my demo in the run mode here:


and in the editor:

2 Likes
3

Got it.

  • DateInput A (or whatever you want to call it)
  • set DateInput A’s initial content to “current date/time”
  • set a custom state in the DateInput (something like curr_date_time)
  • set a condition in DateInput A, when it’s own custom state is not empty it’s initial content is set to its custom state, so it should read like “this DateInput’s curr_date_time is not empty” and set the “initial content” to “this DateInput’s curr_date_time”
  • make a workflow with at least two actions; the first action will set the custom state curr_date_time to the “current date/time” and the SECOND action will reset the DateInput

So it’s like the dropdown changing updates the date/time in the custom state, then the condition updates the initial content to reflect the custom state, then the reset changes the DateInput’s value “back” to its initial condition.

It’s a silly work around, but the emphasis is on “works”.

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4

Glad you got it working, I think my attempt is a wee bit less hacky and fewer steps and possibly a touch simpler.

5

So you got the DateInput to change it’s value just by setting its initial content to its custom state and then changing the value of the custom state itself? I could have sworn that changing the custom state wasn’t working for me. Maybe I didn’t try it in that exact combination. The custom state’s value would change, but the value displayed in the DateInput wouldn’t change.

1 Like
6

That’s right, if you open my live demo page, you can see it updating with each minute. (you did change the default interval from 30 to 1, didn’t you…)

1 Like
7

Sorry for bumping such an old thread, but the discussions in here solved a huge problem for. Just wanted to reach out and say thanks @DaveA and @blueback09 :heart_eyes:

1 Like
8

This did wonders for my use case. Thank you