Creation Datetime Validation Order

[Paul Barrett]

This issue is irritating me, because it's February

 

I have scanned a lot of old photo prints and they all carry a February Creation Datetime date, of course

 

So I need to edit the date to the date the photo was taken. The vast majority have a day value that is <= 28 so if your date format is dd/month/yyyy you change the day value then the month then the year. Perfect

 

Then you come to a day value that is >28. You enter the day and it doesn't stick. As soon as you move off the day field the number reverts to what it was before.

 

You have to edit the month value i.e the second field before you can enter the value you want in the first field. If that's not illogical enough, try editing the month name field.

 

It currently says "February" and I want it to say "June." So, naturally, I overtype the month name with "June." But nothing happens. Oh, did I mistype it? Try again? Same result. That's because you have to overtype the month name with the month number. Of course you do. I type "6" and the name changes to "June."

 

Now that I have got the month right I can go back afield and enter the day value I wanted.

 

In a leap year things will get even worse because there will be 29 days in Feb so until you change the 3rd value (year) you won't get proper validation of the day value.

 

1. I appreciate that date validation is essential, but does it have to work in such a strange way? It's almost as if the logic is written on the basis of a date format of month/dd/yyyy. That's fine if that's your date format, but if it isn't???? Can't the date be validated when you have finished entering all the values?

 

If there was a preference setting for it, I would actually choose to have all my dates presented in reverse date order yyyy/mm/dd (all numbers). It's what I do with all my folders, so I am used to it and it would be easy to use in the app. Then Daminion could validate as I go through each field with no issues.

 

2. If the display format for the month has to be month name then there must be a better way of editing that text string than by entering a numeric value? For example a month name picker with type down capability. It can't be a localization issue, because all the English names appear so presumably the localization files have all the month names for all the supported languages.

 

- Paul

 

PS. I don't know why the font size in this post keeps changing. It's happened in most of my recent posts. All I do is type, and highlight some words in bold. I don't change font size or type The forum software seems to do it randomly.

[Uwe]

Hello Paul,

I know this "phenomena" too. It happens if you enter a day that doesn't exist in this month. E.g. the current date of DateTime Creation of an item is: 01.April 2017. Try to enter now 31.March 2017. No way. One has to change first the month and then the date.

Regards, Uwe

[lintujuh]

Also the name of the month is taking a lot of space. With the numbers, you would need only two character positions. I'm running English Windows, but Finnish locale, so my months are displayed in Finnish. In Finnish almost all the months are 8 or 9 characters long.

 

-Juha

[Paul Barrett]

Also the name of the month is taking a lot of space. With the numbers, you would need only two character positions. I'm running English Windows, but Finnish locale, so my months are displayed in Finnish. In Finnish almost all the months are 8 or 9 characters long.

 

-Juha

Because i work so often with US based people I actually like using month short name, Jan, Feb etc

 

That way there can be no doubt what we mean by 05-Feb or Feb-05, whereas 05/02 and 02/05 are confusing to both parties.

 

However, despite having just figured out how to change my win 10 settings so that the system longname isJan, Feb etc, Daminion appears to ignore this and use the full longname.

 

I can feel your pain though Juha.

 

I think we agree the current arrangement is unsatisfactory.

 

For me the answer is:

 

1. Follow the exact date format in the user's regional settings

2. When it comes to data entry use the same format as the date. i.e. If numeric, then accept numeric only. If monthname accept monthname only

3. Don't validate the date till after all segments have been entered.