There probably isn’t a web app on earth that doesn’t require some kind of date input. Everyone has their own way of handling this: dropdown menus, a simple text box, multiple text boxes or the dreaded popup calendar.

Most popup calendars are either absolute garbage or too complex.

The Fuushikaden calendar, written by Tan Ling Wee in December of 2001, is probably the best answer to this problem I’ve seen. The calendar pops in the page instead of a new window and can be customized with CSS. It’s very nicely done.

Unfortunately, it’s nearly impossible to find online anymore. I only dug up one good URL: http://www.theopensourcery.com/jscalendarx.htm that explains things in any kind of detail. While all that detail is nice, the site doesn’t have the code (and images) readily available for download. You have to do a bit of digging. Internet.com’s JavaScript site used to have a page for it but that’s gone 404.

The developer of this calendar has officially gone AWOL from the web for a few years now. The copy of the Fuushikaden calendar I use is so heavily modified and trimmed for my own use at this point that I’d rather find the original.

If anyone knows of a site that has the original code and images of this calendar let me know. In the meantime I’m going to keep looking.