How to Customize the Date Smart Tag

Would you like to customize how dates appear in your forms using Smart Tags? While WPForms includes a built-in Smart Tag for displaying the current date, you can customize its format to match your needs.

This guide will show you how to use Smart Tags in field labels and customize the Date Smart Tag format.

Understanding Smart Tags

Before we begin, you might want to review our comprehensive guide on Smart Tags to learn about all the default options available. For this tutorial, we’ll focus on creating a form with a checkbox field that includes the current date in its label.

Creating Your Form

Let’s create a digital book upload form with a required checkbox for terms and conditions. This checkbox will include the current date in its label.

If you need help creating a form, please see our guide on creating your first form.

Once you create your form and add your Checkbox field, add this smart tag inside the label for this field:

{date format="m/d/Y"}

Add the checkbox form field to your form and inside the field label add the date smart tag

Enabling Smart Tags in Field Labels

First, we need to add a code snippet that allows Smart Tags in checkbox field labels. If you’re not sure how to add custom code to your site, please see our guide on adding code snippets.

/**
 * Enable Smart Tags in Checkbox field labels
 *
 * @link https://wpforms.com/developers/how-to-customize-date-format-in-the-date-smart-tag/
 */
function wpf_dev_checkbox_choices_process_smarttags( $field, $deprecated, $form_data ) {
    foreach ( $field[ 'choices' ] as $key => $choice ) {
        if ( ! empty( $choice[ 'label' ] ) ) {
            $field[ 'choices' ][ $key ][ 'label' ] = apply_filters(
                'wpforms_process_smart_tags', 
                $choice[ 'label' ], 
                $form_data 
            );
        }
    }
    return $field;
}
add_filter( 'wpforms_checkbox_field_display', 'wpf_dev_checkbox_choices_process_smarttags', 10, 3 );

This code enables Smart Tag usage in any checkbox field label across all your forms.

Customizing the Date Format

By default, the Date Smart Tag uses the m/d/Y format. Here’s what each part means:

m/ : Month with leading zeros (01-12)
d/ : Day with leading zeros (01-31)
Y : Full year in four digits (e.g., 2024)

To customize the date format, modify the Smart Tag format parameter. For example:

{date format="Y-m-d H:i:s"}

This format will display:

Year first (Y)
Followed by month (m)
Then day (d)
Plus time in hours (H), minutes (i), and seconds (s)

By altering the default format of the date you can pick and choose the date format you want for your smart tag per form and even per field

Advanced Date Customization

Want to add days to your date? Here’s a snippet that adds two days to the current date:

/**
 * Add 2 days to the Date Smart Tag
 *
 * @link https://wpforms.com/developers/how-to-customize-date-format-in-the-date-smart-tag/
 */
function wpf_dev_process_smarttag_date_plus_two( $content, $tag ) {
    // Only run if it is our desired tag
    if ( 'current_date_plus_two' === $tag ) {
        date_default_timezone_set( 'US/Eastern' );
        $link = date( 'Y-m-d', strtotime( '+2 days' ) ); // Output current date plus 2 days
        
        // Replace the tag with our link
        $content = str_replace( '{current_date_plus_two}', $link, $content );
    }
    return $content;
}
add_filter( 'wpforms_smart_tag_process', 'wpf_dev_process_smarttag_date_plus_two', 10, 2 );

You can find all valid date formats in the official PHP document.

That’s it! Now you know how to customize the date smart tag. Next, would you like to enhance your forms further? Check out our guide on creating a unique ID for each form entry for more details.

Reference Filter

wpforms_checkbox_field_display