How to patch the Ajax Control Toolkit CalendarExtender to add Decade support and InitialView – Part 2

In my previous article, I explain a problem with the current Ajax Control Toolkit Calendar Extender control when selecting birthdates – it simply takes too many clicks of the mouse. In this article, I explain my solution to this problem.

Firstly, I introduce the decade view. This allows the user to select from one of 9 decades displayed, as follows:

Calendar Extender Decade View

To get here, you simply click on the Title bar in the Year view:

Year View title click

Ok, so that allows you to remove 3 clicks, but it adds 1 click. But what if you were able to open the calendar in decade view?

Then you would simply select the decade,

Calendar Extender Decade View

then the Year,

Calendar Extender 70s View

then the Month

Calendar Extender 1970 Month View

and finally the Day.

 

Calendar Extender May 1970 Day View

Bingo, 4 clicks!

Click for Part 3 >>