Globalization in JavaScript DateTimePicker control

06 Jun 2023 / 5 minutes to read

Globalization is the combination of internalization and localization. You can adapt the component to various languages by parsing and formatting the date or number Internationalization, and also add culture specific customization and translation to the text localization.

By default, the date format, week, month, time format and meridian names are specific to the American English culture. It utilizes the Essential JavaScript 2 Internationalization package to parse and format the date object based on the culture by using the official UNICODE CLDR JSON data. It provides the loadCldr method to load culture specific CLDR JSON data. To use a different culture other than English, follow the steps below:

Install the CLDR-Data package by using the following command (installs all the CLDR JSON data). To know more about CLDR-Data refer to the CLDR-Data link.

npm install cldr-data --save

Once the package is installed, you can find the culture specific JSON data under the location /node_modules/cldr-data.

Import the installed CLDR JSON data into the app.ts file. To import JSON data, install the JSON plugin loader. Here, The SystemJS JSON plugin loader is used.

npm install systemjs-plugin-json --save-dev

After installation, configure the system.config.js configuration settings as given below to map the systemjs-plugin-json loader.

System.config({
paths: {
    'npm:': './node_modules/',
    'syncfusion:': 'npm:@syncfusion/'

},
map: {
    app: 'app',

    //Syncfusion packages mapping
    "@syncfusion/ej2-base": "syncfusion:ej2-base/dist/ej2-base.umd.min.js",
    "@syncfusion/ej2-data": "syncfusion:ej2-data/dist/ej2-data.umd.min.js",
    "@syncfusion/ej2-inputs": "syncfusion:ej2-inputs/dist/ej2-inputs.umd.min.js",
    "@syncfusion/ej2-splitbuttons": "syncfusion:ej2-splitbuttons/dist/ej2-splitbuttons.umd.min.js",
    "@syncfusion/ej2-popups": "syncfusion:ej2-popups/dist/ej2-popups.umd.min.js",
    "@syncfusion/ej2-lists": "syncfusion:ej2-lists/dist/ej2-lists.umd.min.js",
    "@syncfusion/ej2-data": "syncfusion:ej2-data/dist/ej2-data.umd.min.js",
    "@syncfusion/ej2-buttons": "syncfusion:ej2-buttons/dist/ej2-buttons.umd.min.js",
    "@syncfusion/ej2-calendars": "syncfusion:ej2-calendars/dist/ej2-calendars.umd.min.js",
    "cldr-data": 'npm:cldr-data',
    "plugin-json": "npm:systemjs-plugin-json/json.js"
},
meta: {
    '*.json': { loader: 'plugin-json' }
},
packages: {
    'app': { main: 'app', defaultExtension: 'js' },
    'cldr-data': { main: 'index.js', defaultExtension: 'js' }
}
});

System.import('app');

Use the loadCldr method to load the culture specific CLDR JSON data from the installed location to app.ts file.
DateTimePicker displayed Sunday as the first day of week based on default culture (“en-US”). If you want to display the DateTimePicker with loaded culture’s first day of week, you need to import weekdata.json file from the cldr-data/suppemental as given in the code example.

import { loadCldr } from '@syncfusion/ej2-base';

declare var require: any;

loadCldr(
require('cldr-data/main/de/numbers.json'),
require('cldr-data/main/de/ca-gregorian.json'),
require('cldr-data/main/de/numbers.json'),
require('cldr-data/supplemental/numberingSystems.json'),
require('cldr-data/main/de/timeZoneNames.json'),
require('cldr-data/supplemental/weekdata.json') // To load the culture based first day of week
);

The Localization library allows you to localize default text content of the DateTimePicker. The DateTimePicker component has static text for today feature that can be changed to other cultures (Arabic, Deutsch, French, etc.) by defining the locale value and translation object.

Locale keywords	Text
today	Name of the button to choose Today date.
placeholder	Hint to describe expected value in input element.

Before changing to a culture other than English, ensure that locale text for the concerned culture is loaded through load method of L10n class.

//Load the L10n, loadCldr from ej2-base
import { loadCldr, L10n } from '@syncfusion/ej2-base';

//load the locale object to set the localized placeholder value
L10n.load({
'de': {
    'datetimepicker': {
        placeholder: 'Wählen Sie ein Datum und eine Uhrzeit aus',
        today:'heute'
    }
}
});

Set the culture by using the locale property. In the following code example, the DateTimePicker is initialized in German culture with corresponding localized text.

The following example demonstrates the DateTimePicker in German culture.

Source

Preview

app.ts

index.html

import { DateTimePicker } from '@syncfusion/ej2-calendars';
//Load the L10n, loadCldr from ej2-base
import { loadCldr, L10n } from '@syncfusion/ej2-base';
//load the CLDR data files.
import * as numberingSystems from './numberingSystems.json';
import * as gregorian from './ca-gregorian.json';
import * as numbers from './numbers.json';
import * as detimeZoneNames from './timeZoneNames.json';
import { enableRipple } from '@syncfusion/ej2-base';

loadCldr(numberingSystems, gregorian, numbers, detimeZoneNames);
L10n.load({
'de': {
    'datetimepicker': {
        placeholder:'Wählen Sie ein Datum und eine Uhrzeit aus',
        today:'heute'
    }
}
});

// creates the simple DateTimePicker component with de culture
let datetimeObject: DateTimePicker = new DateTimePicker({
// sets the locale property.
locale: 'de',
value: new Date("12/11/2017 1:00 AM"),
});
datetimeObject.appendTo('#element');

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
            
    <title>Essential JS 2 DateRangePicker control</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
    <meta name="description" content="Typescript UI Controls" />
    <meta name="author" content="Syncfusion" />
    <link href="styles.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <!--style reference from the DateTimePicker component-->
    <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-base/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-buttons/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-inputs/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-popups/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-lists/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-calendars/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/systemjs/0.19.38/system.js"></script>
    <script src="systemjs.config.js"></script>
</head>

<body>
    <div id='loader'>LOADING....</div>
    <div id='container'>
        <input id='element' />
    </div>
</body>

</html>

Right-To-Left

The DateTimePicker supports RTL (right-to-left) functionality for languages like Arabic and Hebrew to displays the text in the right-to-left direction. Use enableRtl property to set the RTL direction. The following code example initialize the DateTimePicker component in Arabic culture and also explains how to set the localized text to the placeholder using load method of L10n class.

Source

Preview

app.ts

index.html

import { DateTimePicker } from '@syncfusion/ej2-calendars';
//Load the L10n, loadCldr from ej2-base
import { loadCldr, L10n } from '@syncfusion/ej2-base';
//load the CLDR data files.
import * as numberingSystems from './numberingSystems.json';
import * as gregorian from './ca-gregorian.json';
import * as numbers from './numbers.json';
import * as detimeZoneNames from './timeZoneNames.json';
import { enableRipple } from '@syncfusion/ej2-base';

loadCldr(numberingSystems, gregorian, numbers, detimeZoneNames);

L10n.load({
'ar': {
    'datetimepicker': {
        placeholder: 'حدد التاريخ والوقت',
        today: 'اليوم'
    }
}
});

// creates the simple DateTimePicker component
let datetimeobject: DateTimePicker = new DateTimePicker({
//sets the locale
locale: 'ar',
//sets the enableRtl
enableRtl: true,
});
datetimeobject.appendTo('#element');

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
            
    <title>Essential JS 2 DateRangePicker control</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
    <meta name="description" content="Typescript UI Controls" />
    <meta name="author" content="Syncfusion" />
    <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-base/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-buttons/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-inputs/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-popups/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-lists/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-calendars/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="styles.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/systemjs/0.19.38/system.js"></script>
    <script src="systemjs.config.js"></script>
</head>

<body>
    <div id='loader'>LOADING....</div>
    <div id='container'>
        <input id='element' />
    </div>
</body>

</html>

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