[Resolved] Relationship form with empty date fields results in 1970-01-01 being shown

[Author]

Posts

[amandaD]

I am trying to:
I have a CRED form to edit/create a relationship. The relationship has several date/time fields, and these are shown in my CRED relationship form as so:
[cred-relationship-field name='coaching-session-datetime-30']

When these fields are displayed on the single CPT view, they are diplayed like so: [types field='coaching-session-datetime-90' style='text' format='Y–m–d h:i a'][/types], wrapped in a conditional that checks if the date not empty, and if the date is before TODAY()

Link to a page where the issue can be seen: hidden link (the coaching tab)

I expected to see:
The relationship date fields are optional. When I submit the relationship form with some empty date fields, I expect to see blank/empty date fields.

Instead, I got: 1970-01-01 12:00 am (the linux epoch).

Second issue - possibly related? When I add/edit the relationship on the WordPress backend, my dates are displayed on the frontend as: `2023–05–31 09:00 am`. This is correct.

If I use the frontend relationship form to add/edit the relationship, my dates are displayed as `2023–05–09 12:00 am 2023–05–09 12:00 am 1970–01–01 12:00 am` This is incorrect.

My relationship form looks like this:

```
[wpv-noautop]
[cred-relationship-form-container]

<!-- TRAINEE -->
<div class='row mb-4'>
<div class='col-12 col-md-3 col-lg-2 text-md-right text-md-end'>
<label class='form-label fw-bold m-0 align-items-center' for='%%FORM_ID%%_child'>
[cred_i18n name='child-label']Trainee[/cred_i18n]
</label>
</div>
<div class='col-12 col-md-9 col-lg-10'>
[cred-relationship-role role='child' orderby='title' order='ASC' class='form-select' output='bootstrap']
</div>
</div>

<!-- NAME -->
<div class='row mb-4'>
<div class='col-12 col-md-3 col-lg-2 text-md-right text-md-end'>
<label class='form-label fw-bold m-0 align-items-center' for='%%FORM_ID%%_parent'>
[cred_i18n name='parent-label']Coach[/cred_i18n]
</label>
</div>
<div class='col-12 col-md-9 col-lg-10'>
[cred-relationship-role role='parent' orderby='title' order='ASC' class='form-select' output='bootstrap']
</div>
</div>

<div class='row mb-4'>
<div class='col-12 col-md-3 col-lg-2 text-md-right text-md-end'>
<label class='form-label fw-bold m-0 align-items-center' for='%%FORM_ID%%_coaching-session-datetime-30'>
[cred_i18n name='coaching-session-datetime-30-label']30 day[/cred_i18n]
</label>
</div>
<div class='col-12 col-md-9 col-lg-10'>
[cred-relationship-field name='coaching-session-datetime-30']
</div>
</div>

<div class='row mb-4'>
<div class='col-12 col-md-3 col-lg-2 text-md-right text-md-end'>
<label class='form-label fw-bold m-0 align-items-center' for='%%FORM_ID%%_coaching-session-datetime-45'>
[cred_i18n name='coaching-session-datetime-45-label']45 day[/cred_i18n]
</label>
</div>
<div class='col-12 col-md-9 col-lg-10'>
[cred-relationship-field name='coaching-session-datetime-45']
</div>
</div>
<div class='row mb-4'>
<div class='col-12 col-md-3 col-lg-2 text-md-right text-md-end'>
<label class='form-label fw-bold m-0 align-items-center' for='%%FORM_ID%%_coaching-session-datetime-60'>
[cred_i18n name='coaching-session-datetime-60-label']60 day[/cred_i18n]
</label>
</div>
<div class='col-12 col-md-9 col-lg-10'>
[cred-relationship-field name='coaching-session-datetime-60']
</div>
</div>
<div class='row mb-4'>
<div class='col-12 col-md-3 col-lg-2 text-md-right text-md-end'>
<label class='form-label fw-bold m-0 align-items-center' for='%%FORM_ID%%_coaching-session-datetime-90'>
[cred_i18n name='coaching-session-datetime-90-label']90 day[/cred_i18n]
</label>
</div>
<div class='col-12 col-md-9 col-lg-10'>
[cred-relationship-field name='coaching-session-datetime-90']
</div>
</div>
<div class='row mb-4'>
<div class='col-12 col-md-3 col-lg-2 text-md-right text-md-end'>
<label class='form-label fw-bold m-0 align-items-center' for='%%FORM_ID%%_coaching-session-datetime-135'>
[cred_i18n name='coaching-session-datetime-135-label']135 day[/cred_i18n]
</label>
</div>
<div class='col-12 col-md-9 col-lg-10'>
[cred-relationship-field name='coaching-session-datetime-135']
</div>
</div>

<div class="row">
<div class="col-12 text-center">
[cred-form-submit field='submit' name='submit' class='btn btn-trainee']
[cred-form-cancel field='cancel' name='cancel' class='btn btn-light']
</div>
</div>
[/cred-relationship-form-container]
[/wpv-noautop]
```

[Luo Yang]

Hello,

I have tried it in a fresh WP installation + the latest version of Toolset plugins, it works fine.

See below sandbox website:
Login URL: hidden link

1) Relationship form with custom date field:
hidden link

2) Test it in frontend:
hidden link
Fill and submit above relationship form

3) Check the new intermediatory post in admin side:
hidden link

I can see the custom date field value is empty, same as in frontend:
hidden link

Is there any missing steps? Can you reproduce the same problem in above sandbox website? thanks

[amandaD]

Hello. Yes, I can reproduce the problem when I change the relationship form to require both date AND time, then I get the same 1970 problem. See the intermediary post here: Pages Posts: 24 - 26

I edited the post field group for the relationship to require both date and time (screenshot 1). When I make this change, I can reproduce the error (screenshot 2) It works fine if there is only the date.

[Luo Yang]

Thanks for the detail, you are right, the datepicker of custom date field does not pass value to relationship form, but the time and second fields do pass values.

As a workaround, you can use custom codes to remove custom date field value if the date field is empty, for example:

1) Add a custom code "remove-empty-date":

add_action( 'added_post_meta', function( $mid, $object_id, $meta_key, $_meta_value ) {
  
    if( get_post_type($object_id) == 'page-post' 
       && isset($_POST['wpcf']['coaching-session-datetime-30']['display-only'])
       && empty($_POST['wpcf']['coaching-session-datetime-30']['display-only'])
    ){
      	delete_post_meta($object_id, 'wpcf-coaching-session-datetime-30');
      	wp_cache_delete( $object_id, 'post_meta' );
    }
}, 99, 4 );

Please replace "page-post" with the many-to-many relationship slug
replace "coaching-session-datetime-30" with your custom date field slug

2) Test it in frontend again:
hidden link

It works fine after create new relationships.

More helps:
https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/hooks/added_meta_type_meta/

[amandaD]

My issue is resolved now. Thank you!