SmartDate Validation/Formatting

[Chicagoan2016]

A strange error is being reported in one of our applications.
We have a SmartDate property in our business object. From the Formatting code in our UI if the user doesn't enter any date we set the SmartDate property in our object to 'new SmartDate(true)'.
We have added a business rule to check if SmartDate is empty but when I debug the business rule's Execute method is never called. Although I could see the debugger is hitting this line.
set { SetProperty(DateOrderedProperty, value) of our SmartDate read/write property.
Any ideas?

Kind Regards

[rockfordlhotka]

Is it possible that the existing value equals the new value?

Not that they are the same object - but I think SetProperty uses equality to determine whether to run rules. So if the SmartDate instance .Equals the existing value, then the property would be considered unchanged and no rules would be run.

[Chicagoan2016]

@rockfordlhotka The default value of SmartDate property in our object is also showing as new SmartDate(true).
By default, I mean before we set the value in our UI.
Is this by design?

Kind Regards

[rockfordlhotka]

SmartDate is a value type, so the property won't be null - it will be a SmartDate, so yes, this is by design.

[Chicagoan2016]

I am a little stumped : )
What should our formatting code in UI return for the validation rule to run?
Kind regards

[rockfordlhotka]

SmartDate is designed to be used behind a string property. The value it provides is to translate between text input and a date value.

It sounds like you are creating a property of type SmartDate and binding it to something - a date picker or something?

The intent is that your property would be like this:

    public static readonly PropertyInfo<SmartDate> MyDateProperty = RegisterProperty<SmartDate>(nameof(MyDate), null, new SmartDate());
    public string MyDate
    {
      get => GetPropertyConvert<SmartDate, string>(MyDateProperty);
      set => SetPropertyConvert<SmartDate, string>(MyDateProperty, value);
    }

[Chicagoan2016]

Yes, you are right, we are indeed using SmartDate Property in our business object.
If memory serves, we have tried using a separate string property but with free-form data entry we were getting exceptions from SetPropertyConvert if, for instance, a user would mistype 05/05/2005 as 55/05/2005.

We couldn't figure out where to handle exceptions from SetProperytConvert.

Kind Regards