Saving an entry gives a date format error for the entry date

Question

Saving or updating an entry gives an error message "The date you submitted is not valid." Its on a fresh install of EE 2.9.3 with Publisher 1.6.2 (where Publisher shouldn't be the problem I guess). I had some extensions installed which most of them are uninstalled now (Event Helper, MX CP Notice, Limitee, single entry)

If I change the entry date "14/4/2015 09:05" to "14-4-2015 09:05" I can save the entry.

I also have not changed any of the config parameters.

I never had this before on EE 2.9.3.

Are there any ideas why this happens?

Answer 1

Update: Wes Baker posted, that there are "official solutions".

In ..../system/expressionengine/libraries/Localize.php around line 283 remove the following block of code:

if ( ! empty($date_string) &&
    ! is_numeric($date_string) &&
    @strtotime($date_string) === FALSE)
{
    return FALSE;
} 

And:

Open system/expressionengine/fieldtypes/date/ft.date.php and find this block of code around line 100 and remove it:

if (preg_match(’/\d{1,2}-\d{1,2}-\d{2}\b/’, $data))
{
    return lang(‘invalid_date_ambiguous’);
} 

Now, open up system/expressionengine/libraries/Localize.php and find the _datetime() function around line 289 and add this to the top of the function:

// Checking for ambiguous dates but only when we don't have a date
// format.
if ( ! $date_format)
{
    if (preg_match('/\b\d{1,2}-\d{1,2}-\d{2}\b/', $date_string))
    {
        return FALSE;
    }
} 

//

Original Answer:

Two changes seems to fix it in cp, PHP 5.4:

/system/expressionengine/fieldtypes/date/ft.date.php

In function validate, delete lines 100–103:

if (preg_match(’/\d{1,2}-\d{1,2}-\d{2}\b/’, $data))
{
return lang(‘invalid_date_ambiguous’);
}

/system/expressionengine/libraries/Localize.php

In function _datetime, delete the “Fix for some versions of PHP 5.2 ...”, lines 283–290:

if ( ! empty($date_string) &&
! is_numeric($date_string) &&
@strtotime($date_string) === FALSE)
{
return FALSE;
}

Answer 2

Head on over to your EE backend. If you go to Admin -> Localization Settings, you should set your default date format, and make sure to hit save to make it updated. It should be set to

mm/dd/yy 

See if that does the trick.

Edit: In 2.9.3, it even shows the full four year format, so make sure you set it to

mm/dd/yyyy