jui DatePacker Problems

I am trying to use the yii2/jui/DatePicker and just can’t get it to work. I have thre of them on a view, attached to a $model via attributes. If I don’t enter anything it is fine, click on a date, validation fails with “Invalid Date Format”

In the model




/*

 * @property integer $birth_date

 * @property integer $aniversary_date

 * @property integer $hire_date

 */

   public function rules() {

        return [

            ...

            [['birth_date', 'aniversary_date', 'hire_date'], 'default', 'value' => null],

            ...

            [['aniversary_date'], 'date', 'timestampAttribute' => 'aniversary_date', 'skipOnEmpty' => true],

            [['hire_date'], 'date', 'timestampAttribute' => 'hire_date', 'skipOnEmpty' => true],

            //[['birth_date', 'aniversary_date', 'hire_date'], 'safe'],

            ...



In the View _form.php




use yii\bootstrap\ActiveForm;

use yii\jui\DatePicker;


        <?php

        $form = ActiveForm::begin([

                    'layout' => 'horizontal',

                    'fieldConfig' => [

                        'horizontalCssClasses' => [

                            'label' => 'col-sm-3',

                            'offset' => 'col-sm-offset-2',

                            'wrapper' => 'col-sm-8',

                        ],

                    ],

        ]);


                    <?php

                    echo $form->field($model, 'birth_date')->widget(DatePicker::className(), [

                        'options' => ['class' => 'form-control'],

                        'dateFormat' => 'short,

                        'clientOptions' => [

                            'showOn' => "button",

                            'buttonImage' => Url::to('@web/images/calendar.gif'),

                            'buttonImageOnly' => true,

                            'buttonText' => "Select date"

                        ],

                    ]);

                    ?>


                    <?php

                    echo $form->field($model, 'aniversary_date')->widget(DatePicker::className(), [

                        'options' => ['class' => 'form-control'],

                        'dateFormat' => 'short',

                        'clientOptions' => [

                            'showOn' => "button",

                            'buttonImage' => Url::to('@web/images/calendar.gif'),

                            'buttonImageOnly' => true,

                            'buttonText' => "Select date"

                        ],

                    ]);

                    ?>


                    <?php

                    echo $form->field($model, 'hire_date')->widget(DatePicker::className(), [

                        'options' => ['class' => 'form-control'],

                        'dateFormat' => 'short',

                        'clientOptions' => [

                            'showOn' => "button",

                            'buttonImage' => Url::to('@web/images/calendar.gif'),

                            'buttonImageOnly' => true,

                            'buttonText' => "Select date"

                        ],

                    ]);

                    ?>

        </div>


        <?php ActiveForm::end(); ?>




Thank in advance for any help.

P.S. Why is the ‘short’ format ‘d/m/y’ and not ‘m/d/y’, since the default language of Yii is en-US?

Anybody? :-[