Document special treatment for date fields

I'm afraid I don't understand the question or the context of the question.

Ah! Yes you can make any field dependent on a dropdown; checkboxes and radios need special handling, is all. Views does it with textfields all over the place (it uses its own version of the same code).

Only radios use the special 'radio:' notation. You want to just use the id of the select which would be

'#dependency' => array('edit-personal-rfxuser-work-status' => array(2)),

(probably best to compare against the id in firebug of course)

Oh it may just be about ids. It's possible that date fields have the same problem that checkboxes and radios have, that Drupal doesn't provide the wrapper ID? Check the HTML source (compare to the textfield you've got working) and see. Sometimes just using #prefix and #suffix to provide the right #id will work.

I'm trying to get it to work in a ctools modal. It's for some style settings in a panels everywhere theme. Here's my code:

 $form['border']['test'] = array(
    '#type' => 'checkbox',
    '#id' => 'border-test',
    '#title' => t('test'),
    '#description' => t('test dependent'),
    '#default_value' => FALSE,
  );

  $form['border']['color']= array(
    '#title' => t('Border color'),
    '#type' => 'checkboxes',
    '#process' => array('ctools_dependent_process'),
    '#dependency' => array('border-test' => array(1)),
    '#options' => array(
      'light' => t('Light'),
      'dark' => t('Dark'),),
    '#description' => t('Choose a dark or light border color'),
    '#prefix' => '<div id="edit-border-color-wrapper"><div id="edit-border-color">',
    '#suffix' => '</div></div>',
    '#default_value' => (isset($style_settings['border']['color'])) ? $style_settings['border']['color'] : 'light',

I've checked with the browser inspector in chromium and everything it's ok, related to CSS IDs and such. But the radios never expand. I might add that this is a simplification of a previous situation with checkboxes. I tried this single checkbox, but to no avail. Any help is much appreciated.

Thank you

Ok. I grokked it. Between the HTML elements view and the console of the chromium browser inspector I managed to figure it out by inspecting the Drupal.CTools.dependent object in the console.
Here's my code. I want the hidden element to show if any of the checkboxes is selected.

$form['border']['position'] = array(
    '#type' => 'checkboxes',
    '#title' => t('Border position'),
    '#options' => array(
      'top' => t('top'),
      'right' => t('right'),
      'bottom' => t('bottom'),
      'left' => t('left'),
    ),
    '#description' => t('Please check where the border should appear.'),
    '#default_value' => (isset($style_settings['border']['position'])) ? $style_settings['border']['position'] : array(),
  );

$form['border']['color']= array(
    '#title' => t('Border color'),
    '#type' => 'radios',
    '#options' => array(
      'light' => t('Light'),
      'dark' => t('Dark'),),
    // This ID *must be* the wrapper ID of the form element that gets hidden.
    '#prefix' => '<div id="edit-settings-border-color-wrapper"><div id="edit-settings-border-color">',
    '#suffix' => '</div></div>',
    '#process' => array('ctools_dependent_process', 'expand_radios'),
    '#dependency' => array('edit-settings-border-position-top' => array(1),
                           'edit-settings-border-position-right' => array(1),
                           'edit-settings-border-position-bottom' => array(1),
                           'edit-settings-border-position-left' => array(1),),
    '#description' => t('Choose a dark or light border color'),
    '#default_value' => (isset($style_settings['border']['color'])) ? $style_settings['border']['color'] : 'light',
  );

This is much nicer than the FAPI ahah form framework for this type of action. Merlin would an example module for dependent.inc interest you for inclusion in CTools? Right now there's a example plugin module, IMHO, there should be more examples of usage if the tools.

Of course I can always add a documentation page at d.o and include the example code.

Thank you for CTools.

Merlin would an example module for dependent.inc interest you for inclusion in CTools? Right now there's a example plugin module, IMHO, there should be more examples of usage if the tools.

Yes, yes, and more yes. Absolutely. Documentation is one place where people can really help improve CTools, because it's a place where I've been very poor at focusing my time.

Marking fixed, the answer has been posted.

If anyone who participated in this would like to help improve the documentation, that would be greatly appreciated.

A note for anyone who has issues getting the ctools_dependent_process to work with date_popup widgets.
I ran into the same problem as chrism2671. It would display the date labels, but the date fields didn't display at all. (although the "dependent" functionality worked just fine, it just worked *only* with the labels since the date input elements did not get sent to the page)
I found out (by stepping thru the code numerous times) that I had to add a "date_popup_process" as indicated below. Then it works fine.

The following is the code I am using.

  $form = array();
  $form['bgs_filter'] = array(
    '#type' => 'fieldset',
    '#title' => 'Filter',
    '#collapsible' => TRUE,
    '#collapsed' => FALSE,
  );
  $form['bgs_filter']['bgs_date_filter_op'] = array(
    '#type' => 'select',
    '#title' => t('Date'),
    '#default_value' => '=',
    '#tree' => True,
    '#options' => array(
      '<'   => t('Is less than'),                 // Show Value
      '<='  => t('Is less than or equal to'),     // Show Value
      '='   => t('Is equal to'),                  // Show Value
      '!='  => t('Is not equal to'),              // Show Value
      '>='  => t('Is greater than or equal to'),  // Show Value
      '>'   => t('Is greater than'),              // Show Value
      'between'   => t('Is between'),             // Show Min + Max
      'not between' => t('Is not between'),       // Show Min + Max
      'empty'     =>  t('Is empty (NULL)'),       // Show None
      'not empty' => t('Is not empty (NOT NULL)'),// Show None
     ),    
  );
  $default_date = date('Y', time()).'-'.date('m', time()).'-'.date('d', time()).' 00:00:00';
  $default_date = '';
  $form['bgs_filter']['bgs_date_filter'] = array(
    '#tree' => TRUE,
    '#theme' => 'date_views_filter_form',
  );
  // ADF NOTE: To use the 'ctools_dependent_process' with a date_popup you MUST
  //  add the "date_popup_process" process entry FIRST. IF you dont', the Popup
  //  will NOT work.
  $form['bgs_filter']['bgs_date_filter']['value'] = array(
    '#type' => 'date_popup',
    '#date_format' => 'm/d/Y',
    //'#type' => 'date_select',
    //'#date_format' => 'd m Y',
    //'#date_year_range' => '-2:+1',
    '#default_value' => $default_date,
    '#process' => array('date_popup_process','ctools_dependent_process'),
    '#dependency' => array('edit-bgs-date-filter-op' => array('<','<=','=','!=','>=','>')),
  );
  $form['bgs_filter']['bgs_date_filter']['min'] = array(
    '#type' => 'date_popup',
    '#title' => 'From date',
    '#date_format' => 'm/d/Y',
    //'#type' => 'date_select',
    //'#date_format' => 'd m Y',
    //'#date_year_range' => '-2:+1',
    '#default_value' => $default_date,
    '#process' => array('date_popup_process','ctools_dependent_process'),
    '#dependency' => array('edit-bgs-date-filter-op' => array('between','not between')),
  );
  $form['bgs_filter']['bgs_date_filter']['max'] = array(
    '#type' => 'date_popup',
    '#title' => 'To date',
    '#date_format' => 'm/d/Y',
    //'#type' => 'date_select',
    //'#date_format' => 'd m Y',
    //'#date_year_range' => '-2:+1',
    '#default_value' => $default_date,
    '#prefix' => '<div id="edit-bgs-date-filter-to-wrapper"><div id="edit-bgs-date-filter-to">',
    '#suffix' => '</div></div>',
    '#process' => array('date_popup_process','ctools_dependent_process'),
    '#dependency' => array('edit-bgs-date-filter-op' => array('between','not between')),
  );
  $form['bgs_filter']['bgs_filter_submit'] = array(
    '#type' => 'submit',
    '#value' => t('Apply'),
    '#attributes' => array('onclick' => 'javascript:bgs_helper_filter(); return false;'),
  );
  return $form;

Hope this helps save someone else some time...

Andrew.

If you're making a date field dependent make sure that you're not removing expand_date callback by overwriting the #process array. Below is a working example of a checkbox dependent date field:

  $form['scheduler_settings']['periodic']['expiry']['sms_panel_scheduler_expiry'] = array(
    '#type' => 'checkbox',
    '#title' => t('Check if you wish to expire this periodical cron job at a specific time.'),
    '#description' => t('By checking this option the job will be deleted from the cron queue at the specified time.'),
    '#default_value' => 0,
    // CTools dependent API compliant.
    '#id' =>'sms-panel-scheduler-expiry',
  );

  $form['scheduler_settings']['periodic']['expiry']['sms_panel_scheduler_expiry_date'] = array(
    '#type' => 'date',
    '#title' => t('Expiry Date'),
    // CTools dependent API compliant.
    '#process' => array('expand_date', 'ctools_dependent_process'),
    '#dependency' => array('sms-panel-scheduler-expiry' => array(TRUE)),
  );

Addendum to #15: depending on what type of date field you have (popup, select, etc) the process item is different, eg for a popup:

    '#process' => array('date_popup_process', 'ctools_dependent_process'),

The code in _date_api_elements() shows which one to use.

Here's a patch with that information.

Closing this issue as outdated as Drupal 6 ctools is not supported. If this issue is relevant for Drupal 7, feel free to re-open and mark for Drupal 7 (or 8)