DateInput, TimeInput, and DateTimeInput are inconsistent

[gauthierm]

What you were expecting:

These inputs should receive Date or string and publish Date.

What happened instead:

They are inconsistent:

• DateInput receives string and returns string,
• TimeInput receives string | Date and returns Date
• DateTimeInput receives string | Date and returns Date

Steps to reproduce:

Make a form with a DateTimeInput, change your mind after talking with the UX team and then switch to DateInput. Now the published value switched from a Date object to a string and validation and transformation functions may unexpectedly break.

Other information:

The DateInput does actually receive a Date or a string, but the documentation says it receives a string.

The parse field for DateTimeInput and TimeInput defaults to a date parser that produces a date object. For the DateInput, the parse field is empty by default.

• https://github.com/marmelab/react-admin/blob/master/packages/ra-ui-materialui/src/input/TimeInput.tsx#L58C1-L58C23
• https://github.com/marmelab/react-admin/blob/master/packages/ra-ui-materialui/src/input/DateTimeInput.tsx#L35
• https://github.com/marmelab/react-admin/blob/master/packages/ra-ui-materialui/src/input/DateInput.tsx#L45

Environment

• React-admin version: 4.16.7
• Last version that did not exhibit the issue (if applicable): n/a
• React version: n/a
• Browser: n/Z
• Stack trace (in case of a JS error): n/a

[fzaninotto]

Thanks for your report.

There are various strategies to store partial dates and time, but none that is completely satisfactory. The current state of date and time inputs in react-admin is the result of a compromise between developer expectations, standards, and ease of use. Consistency between these inputs isn't a goal.

That being said, if the documentation isn't clear about the input and output, it needs fixing. So I'm marking this as a documentation issue. Would you like to open a PR to fix it?

[Nela62]

Right now, the documentation for DateInput clearly states that the input can either be a Date object or a string. Can this issue be closed?

[fzaninotto]

@Nela62 You're referring to the MUI variant of DateInput. For the browser-specific variant, at the top of the page, the wording is still not clear enough.

Would you like to work on a PR to fix this?