Creating a Month-Year Picker with jQuery UI Datepicker

Introduction

The jQuery UI Datepicker is a versatile tool widely used for date selection in web applications. While it typically displays a full calendar allowing users to select individual dates, there are scenarios where you might only want the user to choose a month and year. This tutorial will guide you through creating a custom Month-Year picker using jQuery UI Datepicker.

Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure you have:

Basic knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
A web development environment with access to jQuery and jQuery UI libraries.

Setting Up the Environment

First, include the necessary jQuery and jQuery UI resources in your project. You can link to these from a CDN for simplicity:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <title>Month-Year Picker</title>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://code.jquery.com/ui/1.12.1/themes/base/jquery-ui.css">
    <script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.6.0.min.js"></script>
    <script src="https://code.jquery.com/ui/1.12.1/jquery-ui.min.js"></script>
</head>
<body>

Creating the Month-Year Picker

The goal is to configure the Datepicker to allow users to select only a month and year, hiding the day selection.

Step 1: HTML Structure

Add an input field where the date will be displayed:

<label for="monthYear">Select Month and Year:</label>
<input type="text" id="monthYear">

Step 2: Initialize Datepicker with Custom Options

Use jQuery to initialize the Datepicker on your input element, configuring it to display only the month and year:

<script>
$(function() {
    $('#monthYear').datepicker({
        changeMonth: true,
        changeYear: true,
        showButtonPanel: true,
        dateFormat: 'MM yy',
        onClose: function(dateText, inst) { 
            var month = $("#ui-datepicker-div .ui-datepicker-month :selected").val();
            var year = $("#ui-datepicker-div .ui-datepicker-year :selected").val();
            $(this).datepicker('setDate', new Date(year, month, 1));
        }
    });

    // Hide the day calendar
    $('.ui-datepicker-calendar').hide();

    // Adjust button panel position
    $(".ui-datepicker-buttonpane").css("display", "block");
});
</script>

Explanation

changeMonth and changeYear: Enable dropdowns for month and year selection.
showButtonPanel: Displays a button panel at the bottom of the Datepicker, which is necessary to access the month and year selectors.
dateFormat: Sets the format of the date displayed in the input field to "MM yy".
onClose: Ensures that when the user selects a month/year and closes the picker, the input reflects this choice accurately.

Step 3: Additional Customizations

If you want to further refine the behavior or appearance:

Hide Days from Calendar: Use CSS to hide the day grid entirely:

<style>
  .ui-datepicker-calendar {
      display: none;
  }
</style>

Focus Handling: Ensure that when the input is focused, only relevant parts of the Datepicker are shown:

$('#monthYear').focus(function() {
    $(".ui-datepicker-calendar").hide();
    $("#ui-datepicker-div").position({
        my: "center top",
        at: "center bottom",
        of: $(this)
    });
});

Conclusion

By customizing the jQuery UI Datepicker, you can create a user-friendly Month-Year picker. This approach is flexible and allows for further customization to fit specific application requirements.

Best Practices

Accessibility: Ensure that your date picker remains accessible to all users by testing with screen readers.
Cross-Browser Compatibility: Test across different browsers to ensure consistent behavior.
Responsive Design: Consider how the Datepicker will behave on various devices and adjust styles as necessary.

This tutorial provides a foundation for integrating a Month-Year picker into your web applications, enhancing user experience by simplifying date selection when only the month and year are relevant.