jQuery datepicker set selected date, on the fly

Question

What version of jQuery-UI are you using? I've tested the following with 1.6r6, 1.7 and 1.7.1 and it works:

//Set DatePicker to October 3, 2008
$('#dateselector').datepicker("setDate", new Date(2008,9,03) );

Check that the date you are trying to set it to lies within the allowed date range if the minDate or maxDate options are set.

This example shows of how to use default value in the dropdown calendar and value in the text box. It also shows how to set default value to previous date.

selectedDate is another variable that holds current selected date of the calendar control

    var date = new Date();
    date.setDate(date.getDate() - 1);

    $("#datepicker").datepicker({
        dateFormat: "yy-mm-dd",
        defaultDate: date,
        onSelect: function () {
            selectedDate = $.datepicker.formatDate("yy-mm-dd", $(this).datepicker('getDate'));
        }
    });

    $("#datepicker").datepicker("setDate", date);

Noted that for DatePicker by Keith Wood (http://keith-wood.name/datepickRef.html) the following works - note that the setting of the default date is last:

    $('#datepicker').datepick({
        minDate: 0,
        maxDate: '+145D',
        multiSelect: 7,
        renderer: $.datepick.themeRollerRenderer,
        ***defaultDate: new Date('1 January 2008')***
    });

For some reason, in some cases I couldn't make the setDate work.

A workaround I found is to simply update the value attribute of the given input. Of course the datepicker itself won't be updated but if what you just look for is to display the date, it works fine.

var date = new Date(2008,9,3);
$("#your-input").val(date.getMonth()+"/"+date.getDate()+"/"+date.getFullYear());
// Will display 9/3/2008 in your #your-input input

$('.date-pick').datePicker().val(new Date()).trigger('change')

finally, that what i look for the last few hours! I need initiate changes, not just setup date in text field!