Vista-like [not in a buggy way] JavaScript/PHP Datepicker

By Mark Gharibian - Posted on June 3rd, 2008

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Over at dev.base86, they've released version 2 of their Vista-like Ajax Calendar (vlaCalendar). The vlaCalendar is an unobtrusive JavaScript library that ports the UI functionality of the Windows Vista datepicker control to the web. The library requires the MooTools JavaScript framework as well as PHP.

In their own words:
Key features:

Authentic Vista look-and-feel
- Quick navigation by jumping back and forth between months, years and decades without drop-down boxes
- Smooth transition animations
Customizable features
Lightweight (compressed 8,50kB)

New features in version 2:

Cleaner and more developer centered - easily editable - CSS, PHP and javascript code
- Easily changeable date labels (e.g. different languages)
- Easily stylable. Styles are created on top of the general style; the download include two example styles
- Both normal and datepicker calendar can be instantiated multiple times

The vlaCalendar has been tested on:

IE7 on Vista and XP Service Pack 2
IE6 on XP Service Pack 2
FireFox 2
Opera 9

This script is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial 3.0 License.

A major drawback of the script is that it requires PHP. Although PHP is pretty common in web development, a better implementation could have been done with 100% JavaScript with no dependence on the server. Implementing the datepicker in this manner would have made it more flexible and compatible with all server-side languages. Hopefully we'll see this solution, or one like it, become fully client driven in the near future.

Learn more about vlaCalendar and check out some demos