Catalog variable Date/Time validation – 2 working days (Sun–Thu) with hour‑based lead time

Sirri
Tera Guru

Hi Community,

I’m working on a Service Catalog Date/Time variable validation and would like confirmation or suggestions for improvement.

Variable Details

  • Variable name: time_to_send_out_comms
  • Variable type: Date/Time
  • Used on: Service Request (SR)

    Business Requirement

    1. Past Date/Time Validation

    • The selected date/time must not be in the past

    If user selects a past date/time, show the error message:

    “The time chosen to send out the communication occurs in the past, kindly select a future date/time to proceed.”

    2. Minimum Lead Time – 2 Working Days (Hour‑Based)

    • The selected date/time must be at least 2 working days after the current date/time
    • Working days: Sunday to Thursday
      (Friday and Saturday are non‑working days)
    • Lead time must be hour‑based, not just date‑based

    Example

    Current date/time:

    13/May/2026 13:05:00 (Wednesday)

    Valid selections

    • 17/May/2026 13:06:00
    • 17/May/2026 15:00:00
    • Any date/time after the same HH:mm:ss on the 2nd working day

    Invalid selections

    • 17/May/2026 13:04:00
    • Any date/time before 17/May/2026 13:05:00

    If user does not allow 2 working days lead time, show the error message:

    “Please allow two working days lead time for approvals and content review.”
    Please provide with exact code so it will helpful to me.

    Thank you

     





16 REPLIES 16

@Sirri 

did you try running in background script if you were able to get 2 days added to today's considering the schedule?

what debugging did you do in your script include?

Regards,
Ankur
Certified Technical Architect  ||  10x ServiceNow MVP  ||  ServiceNow Community Leader

@Ankur Bawiskar ,

Please can you help me that background script so I can check exactly.

Thank you.

@Sirri 

check this link on how to add business days

Add Business Days 

55.png

Regards,
Ankur
Certified Technical Architect  ||  10x ServiceNow MVP  ||  ServiceNow Community Leader

Hello @Sirri 

Your screenshot shows date time format as:

VishalJaswal_1-1778789705134.png

My screenshot shows date time format as:

VishalJaswal_0-1778789690975.png

This means the code needs to be updated to handle 11/May/2026 type of date format. Please find below updated onChange Client script:

function onChange(control, oldValue, newValue, isLoading) {
    //Stop processing further code from running when the form initially loads with pre-existing values
    if (isLoading) {
        return;
    }
    // Stop processing further code from running when user clears the field, as there is nothing to validate
    if (!newValue || newValue == '') {
        return;
    }

    var pastMsg = "The time chosen to send out the communication occurs in the past, kindly select a future date/time to proceed.";
    var leadMsg = "Please allow two working days lead time for approvals and content review.";

    // Month abbreviation to 0-indexed number mapping for display-style format (e.g., "11/May/2026 10:41:26")
    var monthMap = {
        'Jan': 0, 'Feb': 1, 'Mar': 2, 'Apr': 3,
        'May': 4, 'Jun': 5, 'Jul': 6, 'Aug': 7,
        'Sep': 8, 'Oct': 9, 'Nov': 10, 'Dec': 11
    };

    // Required to separate the date component from the time component for independent parsing
    var parts = newValue.split(' ');

    // Required to extract hour, minute, and second as separate values from the time string like "12:48:24"
    var t = parts[1].split(':');

    var year, month, day;

	//Please go through below links to understand below code:

	/*

indexOf(): https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/String/indexOf
split(): https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/String/split
parseInt(): https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/parseInt
Date(): https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Date/Date

	*/

    // For Date Time format: "11/May/2026 10:41:26"
    if (parts[0].indexOf('/') !== -1) { // check whether date contain a forward slash
        // Display-style format: "11/May/2026"
        var d = parts[0].split('/'); // Splits "11/May/2026" into pieces: ["11", "May", "2026"]
        day = parseInt(d[0], 10); // First piece "11" which is day = 11
        month = monthMap[d[1]]; // Second piece "May" → look up in monthMap → month = 4 (0-indexed)
        year = parseInt(d[2], 10); // Third piece "2026" → year = 2026
    } else {
        //For Date Time format:  "2026-05-20" -- You can comment this if you don't need it.
        var d = parts[0].split('-');
        year = parseInt(d[0], 10);
        month = parseInt(d[1], 10) - 1;
        day = parseInt(d[2], 10);
    }

    // Required to construct a valid JavaScript Date; month is 0-indexed (0=Jan, 11=Dec)
    var selected = new Date(year, month, day, parseInt(t[0], 10), parseInt(t[1], 10), parseInt(t[2], 10));

    // Capture the current date/time as the baseline for both past-date and lead-time validations
    var now = new Date();

    // Communications cannot be scheduled in the past
    if (selected.getTime() < now.getTime()) {
        alert(pastMsg);
        g_form.setValue('time_to_send_out_comms', ''); //Clear the variable value
        return; // Stop processing further code
    }

    // Calculate the earliest allowed date/time by starting from the current moment and adding 2 working days while preserving the exact time (hour-based comparison)
    var minDate = new Date(now.getTime());

    // Track how many valid working days have been counted toward the 2-day minimum
    var workingDaysAdded = 0;

    // iterate day-by-day until exactly 2 working days (Sunday–Thursday) have been accumulated
    while (workingDaysAdded < 2) {
        // Advance the date by one calendar day for each iteration
        minDate.setDate(minDate.getDate() + 1);
        // Determine if the current day in the loop is a working day or a non-working day
        var dayOfWeek = minDate.getDay();
        // Skip Friday (5) and Saturday (6) as they are defined as non-working days per business requirements
        if (dayOfWeek !== 5 && dayOfWeek !== 6) {
            // Count only valid working days toward the 2-day lead time requirement
            workingDaysAdded++;
        }
    }

    // Selected date/time must be at or after the same hour/minute/second on the 2nd working day from now
    if (selected.getTime() < minDate.getTime()) {
        alert(leadMsg);
        g_form.setValue('time_to_send_out_comms', ''); //Clear the variable value       
        return; // Stop processing further code
    }
}

 


Hope that helps!

@Vishal Jaswal ,

Thank you. It seems to be working partially; however, I noticed that for 22nd and 23rd May (Friday and Saturday), no alerts are being displayed. This indicates that the solution is not working completely.

Could you please check this behavior for future Friday and Saturday dates? That should help in identifying the issue more clearly.

As per the requirement, these dates should also be restricted, so we expect alerts to be triggered for them as well.

Thank you