BCS Date Only field on Update Form

Question

I'm tasked with finding a method for Updating a field that is defined as Date in SQL, but rendered as DateTime through BCS (as there is no Date-only type). On the Update form, I only want a Date Picker, not Date AND Time. Can this be done with a custom field type?

Answer 1

I asked this a while ago, but couldn't find any adequate way of doing it. I don't think that External Lists are exactly the same as a normal list, so I'm not convinced that a custom field type would work - but I don't think this was an idea that I'd tried. I also didn't try Infopath (mostly 'cos I hate InfoPath)

Answer 2

I dont think its possible:

have a look at this: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepoint2010programming/thread/fc9f1079-67f5-4484-927a-96625a03c98a

Taken from the link above explains well from scott:

The matching of the .NET type to some sort of display control (e.g., System.String to Text) cannot be altered for the OOB External List. If you do not like what you get, then you have the following options:

1. Change the underlying data type (for example, changing the DateTime in the database to varchar formatted as Date only)
   1. Create custom InfoPath or ASPX forms with controls to render what you want
   2. Create custom field types/field controls to render what you want
   3. Use a FormatString property or RedererDefinition where the field type can be converted to a string representation easily
   4. Create a .NET Assembly Connector and return custom data in the format you want
   5. Create a custom web part and use the BCS object model to retrieve data, then format it as you want
   6. Use custom XSLT and the External Data web parts to render the data

and

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepoint2010customization/thread/556cdba4-033d-49c1-9ea7-0307293f318e/

This is a question that is asked alot but has no real answer to it except for workarounds!

Hope this helps :)