How to make a javaScript calendar

Learn how to create a customizable JavaScript calendar with an easy-to-follow example.

Creating a JavaScript Calendar

Creating a JavaScript calendar can be a great way to add an interactive element to a website. It allows users to quickly and easily view dates, times, and events without having to manually enter them. In this tutorial, we will be creating a simple calendar using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Step 1: Setting up the HTML

The first step is to create the HTML structure for our calendar. We'll start by creating a <div> element with an id attribute of calendar to serve as the main container for our calendar. Within this element, we'll add two <div> elements: one for the calendar header and one for the calendar body.

<div id="calendar">
  <div id="calendar-header"></div>
  <div id="calendar-body"></div>
</div>

Step 2: Setting up the CSS

Now that we have the HTML structure set up, let's go ahead and add some basic styling with CSS. We'll start by setting up the basic layout of the calendar. We'll use CSS flexbox to make our calendar responsive.

#calendar {
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  width: 500px;
  margin: 0 auto;
}

#calendar-header {
  flex: 0 0 auto;
  background: #eee;
  padding: 10px;
}

#calendar-body {
  flex: 1 1 auto;
  background: #fff;
  padding: 10px;
}

Step 3: Setting up the JavaScript

Now that the HTML and CSS is set up, we can move on to the JavaScript. We'll start by creating a Calendar class with a render method for rendering the calendar. The render method will take in a date parameter which will be used to determine what month and year to display.

class Calendar {
  constructor(){
    this.date = new Date();
  }

  render(date){
    // Render the calendar
  }
}

We'll also need to create a getMonthName helper method to return the name of the month based on the date parameter passed into the render method.

getMonthName(date){
  const monthNames = ["January", "February", "March", "April", "May", "June",
  "July", "August", "September", "October", "November", "December"];
  return monthNames[date.getMonth()];
}

In the render method, we'll need to get the month and year from the date parameter and set it to the calendar-header element. We'll also need to create an array of the dates for the current month.

render(date){
  const month = this.getMonthName(date);
  const year = date.getFullYear();
  const calendarHeader = document.getElementById('calendar-header');
  calendarHeader.innerHTML = `${month} ${year}`;

  // Get the dates for the current month
  const numDays = new Date(year, date.getMonth()+1, 0).getDate();
  const dates = [];
  for(let i = 1; i <= numDays; i++){
    dates.push(i);
  }
  // Render the dates
}

Finally, we'll need to render the dates in the calendar-body element. We'll create a simple table with the dates as the table cells.

// Render the dates
const calendarBody = document.getElementById('calendar-body');
let table = '<table>';
for(let i = 0; i < dates.length; i++){
  if(i % 7 == 0) table += '<tr>';
  table += '<td>' + dates[i] + '</td>';
  if(i % 7 == 6) table += '</tr>';
}
table += '</table>';
calendarBody.innerHTML = table;

And that's it! With just a few lines of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, we've created a simple calendar. You can view a demo of the calendar here.