Display additional text alongside dates in jQuery UI datepicker

Question

I am using jQuery UI datepicker and I want to display additional text inside date cells next to the date. This is the desired behavior:

Unfortunately, manipulating date cells using .text() and .html() functions breaks the datepicker functionality. See following demo and try to use the datepicker. Notice that when you select a date (i) the custom text is gone (ii) changing months destroys the calendar and lands you on "undefined NaN" month:

https://jsfiddle.net/salman/aLdx4L0y/

Is there a solution?

Answer 1

Well, you can monkey-patch jQuery UI and risk breaking the code with newer versions or you can use documented callbacks to add custom data-* attributes to datepicker and display them using CSS pseudo elements:

$(function() {
  $("#datepicker").datepicker({
    beforeShow: addCustomInformation,
    //---^----------- if closed by default (when you're using <input>)
    beforeShowDay: function(date) {
      return [true, date.getDay() === 5 || date.getDay() === 6 ? "weekend" : "weekday"];
    },
    onChangeMonthYear: addCustomInformation,
    onSelect: addCustomInformation
  });
  addCustomInformation(); // if open by default (when you're using <div>)
});

function addCustomInformation() {
  setTimeout(function() {
    $(".ui-datepicker-calendar td").filter(function() {
      var date = $(this).text();
      return /\d/.test(date);
    }).find("a").attr('data-custom', 110); // Add custom data here
  }, 0)
}

.ui-datepicker .weekend .ui-state-default {
  background: #FEA;
}
.ui-datepicker-calendar td a[data-custom] {
  position: relative;
  padding-bottom: 10px;
}
.ui-datepicker-calendar td a[data-custom]::after {
  /*STYLE THE CUSTOME DATA HERE*/
  content: '$' attr(data-custom);
  display: block;
  font-size: small;
}

<script src="//code.jquery.com/jquery-1.9.1.min.js"></script>
<link href="//code.jquery.com/ui/1.9.2/themes/smoothness/jquery-ui.css" rel="stylesheet" />
<script src="//code.jquery.com/ui/1.9.2/jquery-ui.min.js"></script>
<input id="datepicker">

Here's an updated JSFiddle

---

Side note: I'm not sure which functionality is broke in your demo, but since this solution is using documented callbacks and CSS, I believe it's less likely to break anything in future than monkey patching

Answer 2

There is a much simpler solution based on the accepted answer:

The beforeShowDay function allows us to set the "title" attribute for each date. We can display the attribute using CSS pseudo elements.

$(function() {
  var dayrates = [100, 150, 150, 150, 150, 250, 250];

  $("#datepicker").datepicker({
    beforeShowDay: function(date) {
      var selectable = true;
      var classname = "";
      var title = "\u20AC" + dayrates[date.getDay()];
      return [selectable, classname, title];
    }
  });
});

@import url("https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.11.4/themes/blitzer/jquery-ui.min.css");

.ui-datepicker td span,
.ui-datepicker td a {
  padding-bottom: 1em;
}

.ui-datepicker td[title]::after {
  content: attr(title);
  display: block;
  position: relative;
  font-size: .8em;
  height: 1.25em;
  margin-top: -1.25em;
  text-align: right;
  padding-right: .25em;
}

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.11.4/jquery-ui.min.js"></script>

<div id="datepicker"></div>

Answer 3

Since the jQuery UI datapicker is pretty monolithic it is difficult to enhance cleanly.

I would go with monkey-patching one of its internal functions, namely _generateHTML.

$.datepicker._generateHTML = (function () {
    var realGenerateHtml = $.datepicker._generateHTML;
    return function (instance) {
        var html = realGenerateHtml.apply(this, arguments), $temp;
        
        if ( instance.input.is(".datepicker-price") ) {
            $temp = $("<table></table>").append(html);
            $temp.find(".ui-datepicker-calendar td a").each(function () {
                var yy = $(this).parent().data("year"),
                    mm = $(this).parent().data("month"),
                    dd = +$(this).text();

                $(this).append("<br><small class='price'>$100</small>");
            });
            html = $temp[0].innerHTML;
        }
        return html;
    };
})();

$(function() {
    $("#datepicker").datepicker();
});

.ui-datepicker .weekend .ui-state-default {
  background: #FEA;
}
.price {
    color: blue;
}

<link href="https://code.jquery.com/ui/1.9.2/themes/smoothness/jquery-ui.css" rel="stylesheet"/>
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.9.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://code.jquery.com/ui/1.9.2/jquery-ui.min.js"></script>

<div id="datepicker" class="datepicker-price"></div>