Set date to be initially empty in bootstrap-datepicker

Question

I am using the bootstrap-datepicker in my site. The datepicker will be used to define search filters. I need the initial value of the datepicker input element to be empty, so it will not introduce the date filter for the search results. When the user clicks on the text input linked to Datepicker, the Datepicker popup box should select the first day of next month.

Problem: If I were to set an initial date (as shown below), the text input will be populated with today's date which is not what I want. However if i do not set the initial date, the datepicker will show 1970s. What should I do?

Similar to: The demo for jQueryUI Datepicker

JS Code

var now = new Date();
var nextMonth = new Date();
nextMonth.setDate(1);
nextMonth.setMonth(now.getMonth() + 1);
var prettyDate =  nextMonth.getMonth() + '/' + nextMonth.getDate() + '/' + nextMonth.getFullYear();
$('#listing_filter_available').val(prettyDate);
$('#listing_filter_available').datepicker();

HTML Code

<input type="text" id="listing_filter_available" class="input-small" placeholder="Date Available" />

Failed Attempt

Datepicker does not popup on clicking the text input el

$(function() {

    var now = new Date();
    var nextMonth = new Date();
    nextMonth.setDate(1);
    nextMonth.setMonth(now.getMonth() + 1);
    var prettyDate =  nextMonth.getMonth() + '/' + nextMonth.getDate() + '/' + nextMonth.getFullYear();
    $('#listing_filter_available').val('');  // clear the date filter
    $('#listing_filter_available').click( function() {
        $('#listing_filter_available').val(prettyDate);
        $('#listing_filter_available').datepicker();
    });

});

Answer 1

There is a much easier way to do this! To set a value

$('#listing_filter_available').datepicker();
$('#listing_filter_available').datepicker('setValue', nextMonth);

To set a blank value

$('#listing_filter_available').datepicker();
$('#listing_filter_available').val('');

Answer 2

I just encountered a very similar use case. With a couple of tweaks to bootstrap-datepicker.js, I believe I've got it working.

You'll need to edit the script in two places.

For the date field, I'm checking to see if the date (this.date) is set to the Unix start date (.e.g blank date). If so, exit and leave the field blank.

(line: 95 - approx)

    setValue: function () {
        // EDIT - Don't setValue if date = unix date start
        if (DPGlobal.formatDate(this.date, this.format) == DPGlobal.formatDate(new Date(1970, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0), this.format)) return false;
        // END EDIT

For the drop down calendar, I'm also checking to see if the date (this.date) is set to the Unix start date. If so, set the date to today. I'm doing this so that when a user clicks on the date field, it displays the current month as opposed to Feb 1970.

(line: 144 - approx)

fill: function () {

      //  EDIT - Set date in fill to today if date is "blank" (eg Unix start date)
            var d = ((DPGlobal.formatDate(this.date, this.format) == DPGlobal.formatDate(new Date(1970, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0), this.format))) ? new Date() : new Date(this.viewDate),
      //  original code
            //    var d = new Date(this.viewDate),
      //  END EDIT 

I believe that's all you need to do. I've just implemented this in my solution, so if anybody finds any issues or has any better suggestions, I'd love to hear.