Hi All,
We are developing a custom SDK component which in part must display date/datetime values. From what I have observed, when a date or datetime value is supplied via bindings from an Excel spreadsheet OR from a Universe Query, the value is treated as a numeric value consistent with Excel's treatment of numeric values (i.e. number of days since Jan 1, 1900).
So for example:
If I enter "1/1/2014" in an Excel field, then format the cell as "text", I see the numeric value 41640.
If I enter "1/1/2014" in an MS Sql field, map that field via a Universe Query as Date type, when I inspect the raw value of the data, I also see 41640.
I have two questions:
1) Is there any definitive Dashboard documentation stating that the Dashboard component and SDK treats date/datetime values in a consistent manner regardless of source (Excel or Universe Query) - such as making them equivalent to Excel dates? Is this behavior predicatable and documented?
2) Is there a method in the SDK which allows one to inspect the data type (from Excel or Universe Query) to determine that it is a date/datetime type as opposed to a numeric type? I have seen and tried the IPropertySheetProxy.getBindingFormats method, but have not been able to call this method with any success. When looking at the document.xml (from an xlf/zip), I do see datatype properties, but it is not clear how to introspect them.
Thanks,
Eddie