Set Umbraco Property Editor Input to jQueryUI Datepicker - jquery-ui

Question

I'm close but still can't quite get this to work.
I have a new custom property editor that is loading correctly and is doing almost everything expected until I try to set the text field to be a jQuery UI element.
As soon as I add a directive in Angular for setting it to call the jQuery UI datepicker function, I get the following error suggesting it hasn't loaded the jQueryUI script library correctly:
TypeError: Object [object Object] has no method 'datepicker'
Trouble is, I can't see where I should be adding it as the logical places (to my mind, at least) seem to make no difference. Here is the code in full:
function MultipleDatePickerController($scope, assetsService) {
//tell the assetsService to load the markdown.editor libs from the markdown editors
//plugin folder
//assetsService
// .load([
// "http://code.jquery.com/ui/1.10.4/jquery-ui.min.js"
// ])
// .then(function () {
// //this function will execute when all dependencies have loaded
// });
//load the seperat css for the editor to avoid it blocking our js loading
assetsService.loadCss("/css/jquery-ui.custom.min.css");
if (!$scope.model.value) {
$scope.model.value = [];
}
//add any fields that there isn't values for
//if ($scope.model.config.min > 0) {
if ($scope.model.value.length > 0) {
for (var i = 0; i < $scope.model.value.length; i++) {
if ((i + 1) > $scope.model.value.length) {
$scope.model.value.push({ value: "" });
}
}
}
$scope.add = function () {
//if ($scope.model.config.max <= 0 || $scope.model.value.length < $scope.model.config.max) {
if ($scope.model.value.length <= 52) {
$scope.model.value.push({ value: "" });
}
};
$scope.remove = function (index) {
var remainder = [];
for (var x = 0; x < $scope.model.value.length; x++) {
if (x !== index) {
remainder.push($scope.model.value[x]);
}
}
$scope.model.value = remainder;
};
}
var datePicker = angular.module("umbraco").controller("AcuIT.MultidateController", MultipleDatePickerController);
datePicker.directive('jqdatepicker', function () {
return {
restrict: 'A',
require: 'ngModel',
link: function (scope, element, attrs, ngModelCtrl) {
$(function () {
element.datepicker({
dateFormat: 'dd/mm/yy',
onSelect: function (date) {
scope.$apply(function () {
ngModelCtrl.$setViewValue(date);
});
}
});
});
}
}
});

Answer 1

I faced the same problem when adapting a jQuery Date Range Picker for my Date Range Picker package for Umbraco 7. It's frustrating! The problem (I think) is that Angular's ng-model listens for "input" changes to trigger events and so doesn't pick up on a jQuery triggered event.
The way around it I found was to force the input event of the element you wish to update to fire manually, using jQuery's .trigger() event.
For example, the date picker I was using had this code for when a date was changed:
updateInputText: function () {
if (this.element.is('input')) {
this.element.val(this.startDate.format(this.format) + this.separator + this.endDate.format(this.format));
}
},
I just adapted it to force an input trigger by adding this.element.trigger('input') to the code block, so it now reads:
updateInputText: function () {
if (this.element.is('input')) {
this.element.val(this.startDate.format(this.format) + this.separator + this.endDate.format(this.format));
this.element.trigger('input');
}
},
This forces Angular to "see" the change and then ng-model is updated. There may well be a more elegant way (as I'm an Angular newbie), but I know this worked for me.

Answer 2

Got it. This is probably a bit of a hack, but it's simple and effective so it's a win nonetheless.
The assetsService call is the key, where I've put code into the deferred .then statement to call jQueryUI's datepicker on any item that has the "jqdp" CSS class:
//tell the assetsService to load the markdown.editor libs from the markdown editors
//plugin folder
assetsService
.load([
"/App_Plugins/Multidate/jquery-ui.min.js"
])
.then(function () {
//this function will execute when all dependencies have loaded
$('.jqdp').datepicker({ dateFormat: 'dd/mm/yy' });
});
I've then gone and added that class to my view:
<input type="text" jqdatepicker name="item_{{$index}}" ng-model="item.value" class="jqdp" id="dp-{{model.alias}}-{{$index}}" />
Finally, I've added a directive to ensure that dynamically-added items also display a datepicker:
datePicker.directive('jqdatepicker', function () {
return function (scope, element, attrs) {
scope.$watch("jqdatepicker", function () {
try{
$(element).datepicker({ dateFormat: 'dd/mm/yy' });
}
catch(e)
{}
});
};
});
As I said, this is possibly a bit hacky but it achieves the right result and seems like a simple solution.