topic Re: How to stop Text Field reformatting dates? in ArcGIS Online Questions

How to stop Text Field reformatting dates?

Savannah2019 — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 12:45:57 GMT

So I've noticed that text fields in arcgis online are reformatting dates. How do I stop this? I made it a text field for a reason. I want "October 2023" to appear, not "10/1/2023". The only way I can get it to stop doing this is to put in extra text, but I don't want that.

Please see the photos:

What I've written:

What appears in the pop-up:

Help!

Re: How to stop Text Field reformatting dates?

RussRoberts — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 13:02:30 GMT

Can you share your map and I can take a look? thanks!

Re: How to stop Text Field reformatting dates?

EarlMedina — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 13:22:29 GMT

If you can use Arcade, then you can do:

 Text($feature.DateField, 'MMM Y')

Re: How to stop Text Field reformatting dates?

Savannah2019 — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 13:24:27 GMT

Unfortunately, no. It has some internal information, so I can't.

Re: How to stop Text Field reformatting dates?

Savannah2019 — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 13:27:04 GMT

Hi, it's not a date field- it's a text field. That's my problem. Using Text($.feature.TextField) does work and resets it to it's actual input value, but I don't want to have to create a text field and then an arcade function to have to say what I already wrote. If I could skip that, that'd be ideal.

Re: How to stop Text Field reformatting dates?

RussRoberts — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 13:27:13 GMT

Are you setting the formatting on the fields

Re: How to stop Text Field reformatting dates?

Savannah2019 — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 13:35:08 GMT

It's a text field, not a date field, so I don't even have that option. That's what is so confusing to me!

Text field:

Formatting options:

I can add additional text and it'll stop trying to convert it to a date, but it isn't ideal:

Re: How to stop Text Field reformatting dates?

RussRoberts — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 14:00:04 GMT

Can you see what the service returns for that feature through the REST endpoint? I checked against a text field and the string October 2021 was not adjusted with formatting. If you can create a repro case using some other data or map that would be great too.

Re: How to stop Text Field reformatting dates?

Savannah2019 — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 14:30:00 GMT

I tried to create a new point feature class and it's not doing it, so I'm really not sure why this one just started acting up. I assumed it had to do with the most recent AGO update, but if it's only this feature layer that's affected, I'm at a loss.

Can you tell me where to look for the REST endpoint? Should I be looking for something specific? Looking at the rest services page, the only line about it says:

ScheduledStart (type: esriFieldTypeString, alias: Scheduled Start, SQL Type: sqlTypeOther, length: 50, nullable: true, editable: true)

Re: How to stop Text Field reformatting dates?

Savannah2019 — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 14:46:53 GMT

Ok- update: I put the layer in a new map- no issue. It's something to do with the map it's already in. Any ideas what could be causing it? It's not in an attribute expression, it's just selected from the fields list.

Re: How to stop Text Field reformatting dates?

RussRoberts — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 15:13:44 GMT

I think I found the issue

- If you can open the web map in https://ago-assistant.esri.com/

- Check the field under fieldinfos and see if the property format exists.

- If a format exists and it says shortdate

- if its there you can delete it from the JSON in the assistant

What caused this? I think possibly the original map created had the layer being used the field was originally a date field. The layer was overwritten and the field was changed to a string field but the web map still contained the date formatting.

Re: How to stop Text Field reformatting dates?

Savannah2019 — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 15:21:29 GMT

Thank you! This worked beautifully 😄

I think yes, when I first created this, it was an actual date field, but I realized that wouldn't work in all cases.