APEX_ITEM.DATE_POPUP and ORA-01830: date format picture ends before conver

Question

Hi,
I am using apex_item.date_popup for a custom tabular form.
When I load the form with the default sysdate it works ok. However when the user submits an invalid date I get: ORA-01830: date format picture ends before converting entire input string.
Ex: apex_item.date_popup (2, NULL, ac.my_date, :f_date_format, LENGTH (:f_date_format), LENGTH (:f_date_format),NULL)
Where f_date_format is 'DD-MON-YYYY'...
If I enter 'abc' in this field and click submit, my validations find that it is an invalid date, so I reload the page with ac.my_date is the value that the user entered (ex: 'abc'). This will cause the error...
I understand why the error occurs, but is it correct that it does happen? Any ways around this?
Thank you.

Answer 1

Hi Scott,
I found the work around. I'll try to make this code more readable later on.
1: Create a HTML region with the following code:
Note: F02 is the "Column" for my date field:
<script type="text/javascript">
function genCalF02(pRowNum,pYyyy,pMm,pSecurityGroupId)
elemArrLen = 0;
if (document.forms[0].f02.length) {
elemArrLen = document.forms[0].f02.length;
elemArrLen = '&F_DATE_FORMAT.'.length;
pMm = '' + pMm;
if (pMm.length == 1)
pMm = '0' + pMm;
w = open("wwv_flow_utilities.show_as_popup_calendar" +
"?p_element_index=" + escape('f02' + '['.substr(0,elemArrLen) + pRowNum + ']'.substr(0,elemArrLen)) +
"&p_form_index=" + escape('0') +
"&p_date_format=" + escape('&F_DATE_FORMAT.') +
"&p_application_format=" + escape('Y') +
"&p_bgcolor=" + escape('#666666') +
"&p_dd=" + escape('') +
"&p_hh=" + escape('') +
"&p_mi=" + escape('') +
"&p_pm=" + escape('') +
"&p_yyyy=" + escape(pYyyy) +
"&p_lang=" + escape('') +
"&p_application_id=" + escape('&APP_ID.') +
"&p_security_group_id=" + escape(pSecurityGroupId) +
"&p_mm=" + escape(pMm),
"winLov",
"Scrollbars=no,resizable=no,width=258,height=210");
// TODO "?p_element_index=" + escape('f02' + '['.substr(0,elemArrLen) + pRowNum.substr(0,elemArrLen) + ']'.substr(0,elemArrLen)) +
if (w.opener == null)
w.opener = self;
w.focus();
</script>
In you're query (or how ever else you are calling apex_item.date_popup)... use something like this instead:
WHEN is_valid_date(my_date) = 'Y' THEN
apex_item.text (2,
my_date,
LENGTH (:f_date_format),
LENGTH (:f_date_format),
NULL,
NULL,
NULL
) || '<a href="javascript:genCalF02(' || (ROWNUM - 1) || ',' || TO_CHAR (TO_DATE (my_date, :f_date_format), 'YYYY') || ','
|| TO_CHAR (TO_DATE (my_date, :f_date_format), 'MM') || ',' || apex_custom_auth.get_security_group_id
|| ')"><img src="/i/asfdcldr.gif" align="middle" alt="Calendar"/></a>'
ELSE
apex_item.text (2,
my_date,
LENGTH (:f_date_format),
LENGTH (:f_date_format),
NULL,
NULL,
NULL
) || '<a href="javascript:genCalF02(' || (ROWNUM - 1) || ',' || TO_CHAR (SYSDATE, 'YYYY') || ','
|| TO_CHAR (SYSDATE, 'MM') || ',' || apex_custom_auth.get_security_group_id
|| ')"><img src="/i/asfdcldr.gif" align="middle" alt="Calendar"/></a>'
END as xxx
This creates the text box with a date popup window beside it.
Again, this is not pretty code which can probably be done in a function etc.
Hope this helps anyone else who has the same issue.
Martin