# Ask: Date

The Ask: Date node helps to elicit date inputs, since dates are a special entity that needs careful validation and can be bound to various constraints, like dates that need to be in the future, or only in the past, etc. For this reason, date is a special node variant you can add to your Flow when acquiring a date.

<figure><img src="https://3356808761-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FEBQHGJABNTj5ISSOTRxM%2Fuploads%2FELprO5wSaBv6EnNBosIG%2Fimage.png?alt=media&#x26;token=21c2a21e-7387-43fa-86e9-9f0e2aa2079e" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

The date node will behave differently on different channels. On Web, when hide input is enabled, it will offer a date picker.

<figure><img src="https://3356808761-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FEBQHGJABNTj5ISSOTRxM%2Fuploads%2FnjtrPm5u4q2x70kywqtH%2Fimage.png?alt=media&#x26;token=20d59d15-f98a-4ad7-bfe1-631ac2ac19ea" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

On phone it will use the numeric input (DTMF) to elicit the date when the node is configured with a DTMF input format option.

<figure><img src="https://3356808761-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FEBQHGJABNTj5ISSOTRxM%2Fuploads%2FObKRKY1ePx3QnbHfTvL5%2Fimage.png?alt=media&#x26;token=ce04acc5-8ed1-4d62-9db5-c5547d06ba6e" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

And when no DTMF format is provided, or no hide input is used on web, or any of the other channels the node will ask the date by using a question and open text input:

<figure><img src="https://3356808761-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FEBQHGJABNTj5ISSOTRxM%2Fuploads%2FebJOSJqD2ZXW7Lz1V9Rf%2Fimage.png?alt=media&#x26;token=d88ad9dd-4d06-49a8-9645-53ca35be4ec5" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

Because of all the above differences and constraints, the node contains a number of different properties to configure. See below.

<figure><img src="https://3356808761-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FEBQHGJABNTj5ISSOTRxM%2Fuploads%2FnAMRliKGTVJeYxb7cN4R%2Fimage.png?alt=media&#x26;token=0a909125-b781-45e4-9860-caa13f12e171" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

| Property                | Description                                                                           | Explanation                                                                                                                                              |
| ----------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Question                | The original question                                                                 |                                                                                                                                                          |
| Try again (1)           | The repeat question when wrong input is provided                                      | optional                                                                                                                                                 |
| Try again (2)           | An alternative repeat question when wrong input is provided                           | optional                                                                                                                                                 |
| Input by dtmf           | Choose how and if DTMF (numeric input) is allowed.                                    | This is only relevant for the phone channel. The formatting options are described below.                                                                 |
| Output format           | Choose how the date that is stored in the assign to field needs to be formatted       | The formatting options are described below.                                                                                                              |
| Assign to               | To assign the result to a variable in the conversation                                |                                                                                                                                                          |
| Assign ISO to           | To assign the ISO format of the value to a variable in the conversation               | The ISO format is {YYYY}-{0M}-{0D}, see formatting options below.                                                                                        |
| Remember                | To also store the variable in the user object using the names described above.        |                                                                                                                                                          |
| Record audio ☎          | On phone channels there is an option to record the audio                              |                                                                                                                                                          |
| Assign audio URL to     | If record audio is toggled, the URL to the audio file will be stored in this variable | Only displayed and mandatory when Record audio is toggled.                                                                                               |
| Disable date validation | To prevent any validation on the date.                                                | The properties below are not applicable when set to true                                                                                                 |
| Range                   | To limit the allowed date range to either future or past.                             |                                                                                                                                                          |
| Offset                  | To limit the allowed date to an amount of days from the range chosen                  | So when range = past and offset = 1 you can choose from yesterday and earlier. When offset = 2 you can choose from the day before yesterday and earlier. |
| Constraints             | To constraint which type of day can be selected (work days or weekends)               |                                                                                                                                                          |
| Exclusions              | To prevent certain dates from being chosen.                                           |                                                                                                                                                          |

### Date formatting options

The date format used in the fields "Input by dtmf" and "Output format" is composed of the following elements:

| Formatting element | Description                 | Example                   |
| ------------------ | --------------------------- | ------------------------- |
| {D}                | Day number                  | 1, 2, 3 … 29, 30, 31      |
| {0D}               | Day number (0-prepended)    | 01, 02, 03 ... 29, 30, 31 |
| {M}                | Month number                | 1, 2, 3                   |
| {0M}               | Month number (0- prepended) | 01, 02, 03 … 10, 11, 12   |
| {Mfull}            | Full month name             | january, february, march  |
| {YYYY}             | Year                        | 2013, 2014, 2015          |

### Dialog triggers

Special events can trigger another Flow or set of nodes in your existing Flow using Dialog Triggers. See the chapter [Dialog triggers](https://manuals.dialox.ai/studio/links#dialog-triggers) for more details.

## Resources

* [links](https://manuals.dialox.ai/studio/flows/links "mention")