Templates: various questions not worth their own thread

[ownedbycats]

It's not particularly important - just that ideally I was hoping that ColourA would only appear for the current date (e.g. it switches to ColourB at midnight).

[correoparaappzz]

hi, i'm having problems with this template:

program:
    format_date($#pubdate, 'dd MMMM yyyy')

for some books post's 'BAD DATE', and don't know what to do

[ownedbycats]

Do you get the same results if you use $$#pubdate? $ is field, $$ is raw_field.

[correoparaappzz]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Do you get the same results if you use $$#pubdate? $ is field, $$ is raw_field.

it worked, but now there's a problem with the sorting order

[ownedbycats]

Try going to the add custom columns dialog and editing the column to set the sort to 'date.'

[correoparaappzz]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Try going to the add custom columns dialog and editing the column to set the sort to 'date.'

This is how the column is configured

[ownedbycats]

I'm not sure then - I seem to recall there were some oddities with the date sorting but I'm not sure if its the case here. @chaley?

[chaley]

The problem is that the date is in non-English text. Sorting composites by date only works with English dates, and then only in most cases. The reliable solution is to sort the source column, pubdate.

I suspect a better solution would be to supply a format for pubdate (using a tweak) instead of creating a composite column.

[ownedbycats]

Would non-English also explain the BAD DATE error when using field()?

[correoparaappzz]

Originally Posted by chaley

The problem is that the date is in non-English text. Sorting composites by date only works with English dates, and then only in most cases. The reliable solution is to sort the source column, pubdate.

I suspect a better solution would be to supply a format for pubdate (using a tweak) instead of creating a composite column.

I think this is a better option for what I was trying to do.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Would non-English also explain the BAD DATE error when using field()?

Yes, it would.

[ownedbycats]

The inline documentation was updated in order to make note of this.

            'It is best if the date is in ISO format because using other date '
            'formats often causes errors because the actual date value cannot be '
            'unambiguously determined. Note that the format_date_field() function '
            'is both faster and more reliable. '

[ownedbycats]

If I wish to combine three items ($#foo, $#bar, and 'foo, bar'), is there a better way than two separate list_unions()?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

If I wish to combine three items ($#foo, $#bar, and 'foo, bar'), is there a better way than two separate list_unions()?

Use list_join(), as in

program:
	list_join(', ', $#foo, ',', $#bar, ',', 'foo, bar', ',')

[ownedbycats]

Ah, that'll work. List_join() I always tended to overlook because the syntax slightly confuses me