I need to send the current date in this format yyyymmdd via a hidden form input field.

I have the date formatted as I want with this javascript

function getDate()
{
var today = new Date();
var dd = today.getDate();
var mm = today.getMonth()+1; //January is 0!
var yyyy = today.getFullYear();
if(dd<10){dd='0'+dd} if(mm<10){mm='0'+mm} today = yyyy+mm+dd;
}

And this is my form input field

<input type="hidden" name="startdate" onload="this.value = getDate();"/>

I've tried several ways to assign the date above to my var startdate and send it to the server, without any success.

Can you show me how to pass the date to my hidden input field when the page loads?

And I'm wondering if this posses any problems with regards to security and hackers?

Thanks for your help

I need to send the current date in this format yyyymmdd via a hidden form input field.

I have the date formatted as I want with this javascript

function getDate()
{
var today = new Date();
var dd = today.getDate();
var mm = today.getMonth()+1; //January is 0!
var yyyy = today.getFullYear();
if(dd<10){dd='0'+dd} if(mm<10){mm='0'+mm} today = yyyy+mm+dd;
}

And this is my form input field

<input type="hidden" name="startdate" onload="this.value = getDate();"/>

I've tried several ways to assign the date above to my var startdate and send it to the server, without any success.

Can you show me how to pass the date to my hidden input field when the page loads?

And I'm wondering if this posses any problems with regards to security and hackers?

Thanks for your help

• javascript
• forms
• date

• 4 Is adding the date on the server side out of the question? – slamborne Commented Feb 27, 2013 at 3:55
• Yes, I'll have no access to the sever side of things. – user2066907 Commented Feb 27, 2013 at 5:06

2 Answers 2

If you are using the date for some kind of validation then for security you would be much better off using server side scripting; that way the client can't spoof dates.

Furthermore, you shouldn't use an <input>, even if you used the server side to generate the date, because you could still spoof the time using Firebug or many other web developer tools. The HTTP POST (or whatever) submitted could contain spoofed data. In the end nothing is 100% secure though.

<input type="hidden" name="startdate" id="todayDate"/>
<script type="text/javascript">
function getDate()
{
    var today = new Date();
    var dd = today.getDate();
    var mm = today.getMonth()+1; //January is 0!
    var yyyy = today.getFullYear();
    if(dd<10){dd='0'+dd} if(mm<10){mm='0'+mm}
    today = yyyy+""+mm+""+dd;

    document.getElementById("todayDate").value = today;
}

//call getDate() when loading the page
getDate();
</script>