EngagingNet scripts “amazing” date-based calculator

Adam Khan, Saturday, November 10th, 2007

JavaScript is touted as a disruptive technology: many tasks previously done within desktop applications are now more easily doable for JavaScript-enabled web browsers. We’ve known this was coming—it’s why Microsoft was so desperate to kill Netscape, because it feared the web browser would become the new desktop—but like all technological revolutions, the change has come more slowly than we all thought. Here’s an extremely modest example of client-side programming that EngagingNet was asked to build.

The good ladybug at WebLadyBug of Fort Lauderdale, Florida asked EngagingNet to develop a calendar calculator script for a favorite client, Sunray Notice, a full-service construction notice company. Sunray wanted visitors to be able to select a first and last day of a construction job and be told how long they had to file “Notice to Owner” and “Claim of Lien” documents.

Solution

Since web users today expect to be able to select a date by picking it from a dynamic monthly calendar display, we chose the widely-used, stable and open-source Dynarch’s DHTML/Javascript Calendar.

The web page displays two Dynarch calendars, one for the first and one for the last construction day. When the user selects a date, the script converts it into a number that can be worked with, calculating whether the visitor still has time to file a Notice to Owner or Claim of Lien, or whether the time allowed to do so has expired, and displaying the results.

Results

When Sunray saw their idea unfolding onscreen, they came up with some refinements to the workings and the design. Once these too were implemented, Ariela Wagner, Business Development officer at Sunray, exclaimed “Amaaaaaaaazzzzzzzzzzzing!!!!!” and the calculator went online.