What formats can I use for an xforms:input bound to a node of type xs:date?

Question

I am looking at the <xforms:input> formatting documentation and am curious if it is at all possible to display the date as "3 Jul 2011". This should formatting very simple given the use of Java's SimpleDateFormat with the mask [d] [MMM] [yyyy]. The <xforms:input> documentation makes it seem possible to change the canonical format but only references Regex expressions.

Or am I restricted to the masks [M], [D] and [Y]?

Answer 1

You can choose pretty much any format you want when displaying a date or time with <xforms:output>. However, when capturing a date or time with <xforms:input>, Orbeon Forms limits you to just a few formats, as documented.

The reason for this is somewhat technical: for inputs, Orbeon Forms needs to be able to both format the date/time in the format you specify, and to parse it. And the parsing is implemented to accept as many reasonable date or time formats entered by the user. For instance, if you choose a [M]/[D]/[Y] format (typical in the US), you can enter 12/2/2011, but also 12/2 (skipping the year), or even 2 (skipping both the year and the month), or today, as well as several other formats.

The bottom line is that because of this "smart parsing", the <xforms:input> can only support a number of predefined formats. Additional formats can be added, but this requires Orbeon Forms itself to be changed to support those additional formats.