Selecting a period or a date using ONE JavaFX 8 DatePicker

Question

On the application I am currently working, it is necessary to select a single date or a period from the same JavaFX 8 DatePicker.

The preferred way of doing this wo

Answer 1

I think you are already in the right track... DateCell and drag could work, since the popup is not closed if a dragging event is detected or when it ends. That gives you the opportunity to track the cells selected by the user.

This is a quick hack, but it may help you with the range selection.

First it will get the content and a list of all the cells within the displayed month, adding a listener to drag events, marking as the first cell that where the drag starts, and selecting all the cells within this first cell and the cell under the actual mouse position, deselecting the rest.

After the drag event finished, the selected range is shown on the console. And you can start all over again, until the popup is closed.

private DateCell iniCell=null;
private DateCell endCell=null;

@Override
public void start(Stage primaryStage) {
    DatePicker datePicker=new DatePicker();
    datePicker.setValue(LocalDate.now());

    Scene scene = new Scene(new AnchorPane(datePicker), 300, 250);

    primaryStage.setScene(scene);
    primaryStage.show();

    datePicker.showingProperty().addListener((obs,b,b1)->{
        if(b1){
            DatePickerContent content = (DatePickerContent)((DatePickerSkin)datePicker.getSkin()).getPopupContent();

            List cells = content.lookupAll(".day-cell").stream()
                    .filter(ce->!ce.getStyleClass().contains("next-month"))
                    .map(n->(DateCell)n)
                    .collect(Collectors.toList());

            content.setOnMouseDragged(e->{
                Node n=e.getPickResult().getIntersectedNode();
                DateCell c=null;
                if(n instanceof DateCell){
                    c=(DateCell)n;
                } else if(n instanceof Text){
                    c=(DateCell)(n.getParent());
                }
                if(c!=null && c.getStyleClass().contains("day-cell") &&
                        !c.getStyleClass().contains("next-month")){
                    if(iniCell==null){
                        iniCell=c;
                    }
                    endCell=c;
                }
                if(iniCell!=null && endCell!=null){
                    int ini=(int)Math.min(Integer.parseInt(iniCell.getText()), 
                            Integer.parseInt(endCell.getText()));
                    int end=(int)Math.max(Integer.parseInt(iniCell.getText()), 
                            Integer.parseInt(endCell.getText()));
                    cells.stream()
                        .forEach(ce->ce.getStyleClass().remove("selected"));
                    cells.stream()
                        .filter(ce->Integer.parseInt(ce.getText())>=ini)
                        .filter(ce->Integer.parseInt(ce.getText())<=end)
                        .forEach(ce->ce.getStyleClass().add("selected"));
                }
            });
            content.setOnMouseReleased(e->{
                if(iniCell!=null && endCell!=null){
                    System.out.println("Selection from "+iniCell.getText()+" to "+endCell.getText());
                }
                endCell=null;
                iniCell=null;                    
            });
        }
    });
}

And this is how it looks like:

For now this doesn't update the textfield, as this involves using a custom formatter.

EDIT

I've added a custom string converter to show the range on the textfield, after a selection is done, and also to select a range if a valid one is entered.

This is not bullet proof, but it works as a proof of concept.

private DateCell iniCell=null;
private DateCell endCell=null;

private LocalDate iniDate;
private LocalDate endDate;
final DateTimeFormatter formatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("d.MM.uuuu", Locale.ENGLISH);    

@Override
public void start(Stage primaryStage) {
    DatePicker datePicker=new DatePicker();
    datePicker.setValue(LocalDate.now());
    datePicker.setConverter(new StringConverter() {

        @Override
        public String toString(LocalDate object) {
            if(iniDate!=null && endDate!=null){
                return iniDate.format(formatter)+" - "+endDate.format(formatter);
            }
            return object.format(formatter);
        }

        @Override
        public LocalDate fromString(String string) {
            if(string.contains("-")){
                try{
                    iniDate=LocalDate.parse(string.split("-")[0].trim(), formatter);
                    endDate=LocalDate.parse(string.split("-")[1].trim(), formatter);
                } catch(DateTimeParseException dte){
                    return LocalDate.parse(string, formatter);
                }
                return iniDate;
            }
            return LocalDate.parse(string, formatter);
        }
    });
    Scene scene = new Scene(new AnchorPane(datePicker), 300, 250);

    primaryStage.setScene(scene);
    primaryStage.show();

    datePicker.showingProperty().addListener((obs,b,b1)->{
        if(b1){
            DatePickerContent content = (DatePickerContent)((DatePickerSkin)datePicker.getSkin()).getPopupContent();

            List cells = content.lookupAll(".day-cell").stream()
                    .filter(ce->!ce.getStyleClass().contains("next-month"))
                    .map(n->(DateCell)n)
                    .collect(Collectors.toList());

            // select initial range
            if(iniDate!=null && endDate!=null){
                int ini=iniDate.getDayOfMonth();
                int end=endDate.getDayOfMonth();
                cells.stream()
                    .forEach(ce->ce.getStyleClass().remove("selected"));
                cells.stream()
                    .filter(ce->Integer.parseInt(ce.getText())>=ini)
                    .filter(ce->Integer.parseInt(ce.getText())<=end)
                    .forEach(ce->ce.getStyleClass().add("selected"));
            }
            iniCell=null; 
            endCell=null;
            content.setOnMouseDragged(e->{
                Node n=e.getPickResult().getIntersectedNode();
                DateCell c=null;
                if(n instanceof DateCell){
                    c=(DateCell)n;
                } else if(n instanceof Text){
                    c=(DateCell)(n.getParent());
                }
                if(c!=null && c.getStyleClass().contains("day-cell") &&
                        !c.getStyleClass().contains("next-month")){
                    if(iniCell==null){
                        iniCell=c;
                    }
                    endCell=c;
                }
                if(iniCell!=null && endCell!=null){
                    int ini=(int)Math.min(Integer.parseInt(iniCell.getText()), 
                            Integer.parseInt(endCell.getText()));
                    int end=(int)Math.max(Integer.parseInt(iniCell.getText()), 
                            Integer.parseInt(endCell.getText()));
                    cells.stream()
                        .forEach(ce->ce.getStyleClass().remove("selected"));
                    cells.stream()
                        .filter(ce->Integer.parseInt(ce.getText())>=ini)
                        .filter(ce->Integer.parseInt(ce.getText())<=end)
                        .forEach(ce->ce.getStyleClass().add("selected"));
                }
            });
            content.setOnMouseReleased(e->{
                if(iniCell!=null && endCell!=null){
                    iniDate=LocalDate.of(datePicker.getValue().getYear(), 
                                         datePicker.getValue().getMonth(),
                                         Integer.parseInt(iniCell.getText()));
                    endDate=LocalDate.of(datePicker.getValue().getYear(),
                                         datePicker.getValue().getMonth(),
                                         Integer.parseInt(endCell.getText()));
                    System.out.println("Selection from "+iniDate+" to "+endDate);

                    datePicker.setValue(iniDate);
                    int ini=iniDate.getDayOfMonth();
                    int end=endDate.getDayOfMonth();
                    cells.stream()
                        .forEach(ce->ce.getStyleClass().remove("selected"));
                    cells.stream()
                        .filter(ce->Integer.parseInt(ce.getText())>=ini)
                        .filter(ce->Integer.parseInt(ce.getText())<=end)
                        .forEach(ce->ce.getStyleClass().add("selected"));
                }
                endCell=null;
                iniCell=null;                   
            });
        }
    });
}