Date Picker

The Date Picker lets a person type a date or pick it from a calendar. In SmartForms Studio you decide which dates are allowed, how the date is written and what it starts with. This page goes through the settings in the order they appear in Properties. For the other form elements, see Items. For what the person sees while filling in the form, see Filling in a Smartform.

The Properties panel has these groups:

The colour, border and size settings are the same as for the other elements. They are described in Items.

Information

Placeholder

The placeholder is a small template. If you leave it empty, the field shows the date format, for example dd.MM.yyyy. You can also write your own text and add tokens. Studio fills each token in the field’s own date format.

A token updates as soon as the date it points to changes. A token that can’t be filled in yet is left out, and if nothing else is left the field shows the date format.

Studio shows the tokens as chips under the field. Click a chip to add it. A Shows as line previews the result, for example Between 05.11.2026 and 31.12.2026.

Valid dates

A day can be chosen only if it passes all of these checks, in this order:

1. 1Min dateNot before the earliest date
2. 2Max dateNot after the latest date
3. 3WeekdaysOn an allowed weekday
4. 4Allowed datesIn the allowed list or pattern
5. 5Blocked datesNot blocked
6. 6HolidaysNot a public holiday

The form and the server use the same checks. If a day is refused, the person sees the error message and the date is not saved.

Min date and Max date

Each limit is a fixed date or a date expression, for example:

• today+3days
• today+5workdays, which counts working days and skips weekends
• {{ startDate }}+1year, one year after another Date Picker
• {{ min + 60days }} in Max date, which means 60 days after this field’s own Min date

While the date a limit points to is still empty, that limit does not apply.

Date expressions

Min date, Max date, the default value and placeholder tokens all use the same expressions.

What an expression starts from

Units: days, workdays, weeks, months and years, singular or plural, with + or -. Workdays skip Saturdays and Sundays, and also public holidays when Exclude public holidays is on. A month or a year added to the 29th, 30th or 31st lands on the last day of a shorter month: 31.01 + 1 month is 28.02.

Three ways to write an offset

Names with hyphens. Property names, data-table values and Doxis variables often contain hyphens, such as datepicker-1 or start-date. A hyphen inside a name stays part of the name. Only a hyphen followed by a number and a unit at the end counts as minus. So {{ datepicker-1-1month }} means datepicker-1 minus one month. If a value really has a name that looks like an offset, such as notice-3days, it is used as it is.

Pipes. As in [[ INPUT : name | key=value ]], everything before the first | is the name, and each | add= after it is one step. Steps run from left to right. A sign is optional (add=3days adds) and spaces are allowed:

In the pipe form the name is taken as written. {{ start-date-1month | add=1day }} looks for a field named start-date-1month, so don’t put an offset both in the name and in a pipe.

Minus signs. -, − and – all mean minus. Word and Outlook often turn - into – when you paste.

When an expression can’t be read. If an expression points to an empty or unknown name, or a pipe step is not add= followed by a number and a unit (for example add=1fortnight or sub=1day), the limit does not apply and a placeholder token is left out. One unreadable step makes the whole expression unreadable, so it is never partly applied.

Allowed weekdays

Tick the days of the week that can be chosen, Mon to Sun. Weekdays ticks Monday to Friday. All ticks every day.

Allowed dates

Choose how the allowed dates are described:

For Dates, Day and Year you can type a fixed list, or take the values from a data table. Use the data table when the list changes often or is long.

Exclude public holidays

Tick Exclude public holidays and choose a country. Public holidays in that country cannot be chosen. These countries are supported: Norway (NO), Sweden (SE), Denmark (DK), Finland (FI), Germany (DE), United Kingdom (GB), Netherlands (NL), Poland (PL), Austria (AT), Switzerland (CH), France (FR) and Iceland (IS).

When you tick the box, Studio picks your own country from your browser language, as long as it is in the list. Change it if the form is for another country.

Blocked dates

Add single dates or date ranges that cannot be chosen, for example a company holiday. Click Add date or range. For a range, fill in both the start and the end. The end cannot be before the start.

Type & precision

Display & input

The display format changes only what people see. The date is always stored in the standard form, whatever the format:

Text in the form that uses {{ property }}, and the PDF, show the date in the format you chose for the Date Picker. With a right-to-left language, the date is still written left to right.

Default & validation

Default value

Choose a Data source:

Error message

Write your own Error message for a date that is not allowed. It can use {{ min }} and {{ max }}, for example Choose a date between {{ min }} and {{ max }}.

Integration

Workflow - On Value Change runs a workflow when the person picks or types a date. A default value that is filled in when the form opens does not start the workflow.

Tips

• Typing 03112026 fills in 03.11.2026 when the format is DD.MM.YYYY.
• today+5workdays skips Saturdays and Sundays, so it works well for a delivery or answer deadline.
• Use Day with Last to allow only the last day of the month, for example for an invoice date.
• Write a placeholder such as Between {{ min }} and {{ max }} so people see the limits before they choose.
• To let someone choose an end date after a start date, set Min date of the end field to {{ startDate }}.
• For a field name with hyphens, use a pipe: {{ contract-start | add=+6months | add=-1day }}.
• Test the form with an allowed and a refused date. See Test your Smartform.