Datepicker and ALT-Field

Datepicker and ALT-Field

hi,

it's the first time for me to work with jquery ui datepicker and it seems I don't understand the concept ;(

I get a timestamp from the server and i wnat to send a timestamp back to the server. I want to display a readable date into a text-input and append a datepicker to this textinput. What do I need to do this?

What I got managed up to now is the following:
  1. $('#valid_date_from_datepicker').datepicker({
  2.  dateFormat: 'dd.mm.yyyy',
  3.  altField: '#valid_date',
  4.  altFormat: '@'
  5. });  
Now I receive to values from the server. The date as timestamp for a input[type=hidden] and an additional other value to display and use for the datepicker. When I klick into that field the callendar is shown, I klick a date and the textfield will be udateted with this date in the defined format on the one hand and the value of my alt field with a alt-Format also.

Works well ... b ut:

When I start open the datepicker the first time it has not the value of the field but the actual date. I tried following:
  1. $('#valid_date_from_datepicker').datepicker('setDate', $('#valid_date_from_datepicker').val());
But this does change the Fields Value instead of the date into Datepicker and that can't be right.


but goes wrong here?

best,
heinetz