Member Avatar for ElegantElephant

I have a table called projects, and I'm currently coding the "create a project" functionality that allows the administrator to create a new project and save it in the projects mysql table.

I have a slight problem though, I have two fields/inputs named start date and deadline date, what should I use to allow selection of these dates in the form?

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A concise, practical approach: use an HTML5 date control for modern browsers, add a JavaScript datepicker as a fallback/UX enhancement, store dates in the database with the correct MySQL type, and always validate on the server.

As noted, create proper date/time columns in MySQL. If only a date is needed use DATE; if a time component is required use DATETIME (or TIMESTAMP when automatic timezone conversion is wanted — note TIMESTAMP is converted to/from the server/session time zone, while DATETIME stores the raw value). See the MySQL manual on date/time types: MySQL date and time types.

For the form, prefer the native control: <input type="date" name="start_date">. Native controls give mobile-friendly pickers and reduce parsing issues (see browser support notes on MDN: input type=date (MDN)). As suggested, add a JavaScript picker (jQuery UI datepicker or a modern lightweight alternative) as a graceful fallback: jQuery UI datepicker.

Server-side rules (PHP): parse and validate the incoming date with the DateTime API (for example, using DateTime::createFromFormat('Y-m-d', $input)), enforce deadline >= start_date, and use prepared statements to insert the normalized YYYY-MM-DD value into a DATE column. Client-side min/max attributes and JS checks improve UX but are not a substitute for server validation.

Cautions: store timezone information only when needed; avoid relying on client locale for storage format; and always normalize dates before comparing or saving. This combination yields good UX, clean storage, and robust validation.

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Member Avatar for harry_watson

Have you got some tables and fields set up
in mysql? With date fields?

$from_date= date(Y,M,D)//or whatever php date function u decide.
$to_date = date(Y,M,D)//or whatever php date, could be today for example. 
$from_date = $_REQUEST['day_one'];
$to_date = $_REQUEST['today'];

then you SELECT day one < = $from_date and > = $to_date WHERE this AND so on...

See the date function
on php.net http://nz.php.net/manual/en/function.date.php

Edited by harry_watson because: spelling error
Member Avatar for saiprem

Use javascript date picker, there are may opensource scripts are available for it, gooogle it and get any one them and implement it in your scripts, I suggest Jquery is one of the best date picker.

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