CommunityServer date format hacking

I love the CS skinning model, but sometimes it’s difficult to get at
the formatting of certain controls. The nifty date format I have here
on this blog required a bit of a “hack” to work since the date
formatting is hard coded into the CS source code. I could’ve modified
the source to do this, but I wanted to use the skinning model. In the
file \cs1.0_src\Blogs\Controls\EntryView.cs line 67, you find this code:

EntryDesc.Text = string.Format("posted on {0}",DataSource.BloggerTime.ToString("f"));

I wanted to modify the formatting from the default “f” to something
else. Thankfully ASP.NET’s event model and slick date parsing makes
this super easy. I just modified
\cs1.0\web\Themes\Blogs\MyGreatSkin\Skins\Skin-EntryView.ascx to
include on OnPreRender event (quick note: Page_XXX methods don’t need
the method signature):

<script runat="server">
void Page_PreRender() {
    string dateString = EntryDesc.Text.Replace("posted on ","");
    DateTime realDate = DateTime.Parse(dateString);
    EntryDesc.Text =
       string.Format(
         "<span class=\"postdate-dow\">{0}</span>"
         "<span class=\"postdate-day\">{1}</span>" +          
         "<span class=\"postdate-monthyear\">{2}</span>",
         realDate.ToString("ddd"),
         realDate.ToString("dd"),
         realDate.ToString("MMM yy")
       );
}
</script>

That’s it!