How do I modify the date format for a token using Velocity Script?

Anonymous · ‎06-26-2017

Hello Community,

We'd like to be able to change the date format for an expiration date token (see below) from appearing in an email as 2018-04-12 to April 12, 2018. How would I set up the Velocity Script to do so?

Thank you,

Laura Kimball

SanfordWhiteman · ‎06-26-2017

#set( $dateOptions = {
  "formats" : {
    "userin" : "yyyy-MM-dd",
    "userout" : "MMMM d, yyyy"
  },
  "timezones" : {
    "userin" : "America/New_York",
    "userout" : "America/New_York"
  },
  "locale" : $date.getLocale()
} )
#set( $expirationDatelike = $lead.ExpirationDate )
#set( $expirationDate = $convert.parseDate(
  $expirationDatelike,
  $dateOptions.formats.userin,
  $dateOptions.locale,
  $date.getTimeZone().getTimeZone($dateOptions.timezones.userin)
) )
#set( $expirationDate_formatted = $date.format(
  $dateOptions.formats.userout,
  $expirationDate,
  $dateOptions.locale,
  $date.getTimeZone().getTimeZone($dateOptions.timezones.userout)
) )
${expirationDate_formatted}

Note the very important inclusion of time zones (set the userin and userout time zone strings according to your tz).

You'll see a lot of examples (frankly, any examples that weren't originally contributed by yours truly) that are broken because they are timezone-unaware. Those examples may seem simpler, but they're broken.

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