Date formatting in emails

[partnerwerk]

The new global variable format for $EMail_CustomCurrentDate_Formatseems to work in email templates but not in Workflow email !?


These should be transformed in emails but are not:

Code:

$(general : (__VtigerMeta__) date)
$date_start

Actually any occurence of a date should be put out in the same format which $EMail_CustomCurrentDate_Format should define.

Best regards
Henning

[joebordes]

I didn't add it in workflows because there is already a way to get each part of the date there, no?

[joebordes]

Yes, here: format_date

Workflows are totally different, MUCH more powerful and the (near) future of templating email in coreBOS

[partnerwerk]

Could you please point out how I can use format_date in workflow emails?

I want to send an email with the appointment date in the subject line when the appointment is scheduled.

These do not work:
- format_date('d.m.Y', $date_start)
- $(format_date('d.m.Y', $date_start))
- $date_start(format_date('d.m.Y'))

[joebordes]

open the workflow editor (for example clicking on the vaue input in a condition), select expression and then format_date. You will see this syntax:

format_date(date,format)

if you select "date" and insert a field you will see

format_date(date_start ,format)

so this should be what you are looking for:

format_date(date_start ,'d.m.Y')

now, to put that in the body of a text you have to put it inside a WorkflowFunction meta-structure, like this:

$(general : (__WorkflowFunction__) '."format_date(date_start ,'d.m.Y') )

https://github.com/tsolucio/coreBOSTests/blob/master/modules/com_vtiger_workflow/VTSimpleTemplate.php#L252

[partnerwerk]

I am using this
$(general : (__WorkflowFunction__) format_date($date_start, "d.m.Y") )

but still get an error: Fatal error: Uncaught Exception: Was expecting a closing bracket in /.../modules/com_vtiger_workflow/expression_engine/VTParser.inc:132 Stack ...

I don't see a missing bracket.

This custom function works and seems to have the same structure:

$(general : (__WorkflowFunction__) __email_begruessung( $(cto_id : (Contacts) salutationtype), $(cto_id : (Contacts) lastname), $(cto_id : (Contacts) cf_833), $(cto_id : (Contacts) cf_836) ) )

[joebordes]

Have you tried with single quotes? all the examples I linked above seem to use those instead of double quotes

[partnerwerk]

You are right, but it is not enough.

This one works:
$(general : (__WorkflowFunction__) format_date($date_start,'d.m.Y') )

But only if I add a space after the final bracket. Maybe that is not intended? Took me a while to find out.

PS: Actually I even need to put a dot on the same line in order to preserve the empty space after the function. Otherwise soemthing gets stripped and the function is not executed with error message ”missing bracket”.

[joebordes]

It is rather hard to create a unique string inside a string that we can capture and process accordingly. If you look at the examples I sent in the link above you will see those spaces you are talking about.

Glad you got it working

[partnerwerk]

The Wysywig editor is cutting out these spaces in many cases. So adding a free space and a dot after a workflow function seems to be a safe way to get them processed. But there are some cases where a dot is annoying or misleading.

It also looks like it is impossible to have two functions on one line. When I break them up into two lines (with <p></p> tags for each) it works. When I have them on one line the second is just disappearing.