With this module, a datetime value can be passed by the user into the Pipe. You can type in the date value, or use the pop-up calendar widget to select a default date.

Valid Date Values

So what formats does Date Input understand? Obvious date formats are recognized:

• Jan. 12, 2001
• 10/21/1958
• 15 JUN 06

But it'll understand some unusual formats as well:

• now
• yesterday
• +3 days
• -10 days
• +5 hours
• 1181230100

From these examples you can see how flexible Date Input can be. If today is June 2nd, using "yesterday" gives you June 1st. "+3 days" will give you June 5th. "+5 hours" shows that when we say date we really mean date and time.

It's useful at this point to see what the Yahoo! Pipes datetime data type gives you. Drop a Date Input module onto the Editor canvas, then click on it to make sure it's selected (it'll turn yellow). Enter a Debug value of now, then hit "refresh" in the Debugger. You'll see data like this:

		hour 22
		timezone UTC
		second 33
		month 6
		minute 33
		utime 1181255613
		day 7
		day_of_week 4
		year 2007
		

The datetime type breaks time down into these nine fields. You can specify time down to the seconds. Most of these fields require no explanation, but you may be wondering about utime. This value goes back to the prehistory of the Unix operating system (and possibly earlier than that). It's the number of seconds that have passed since the beginning of the epoch, which is defined as January 1st, 1970. That may sound a bit whimsical, but with a single integer time value you can easily perform date arithmetic.

With this module, you can specify a geographic location as input to your Pipe. Valid locations include addresses, latitude/longitude pairs, U.S. city and state, world city and country, and postal code.

Here are some examples of valid locations:

• Albany, New York
• Main Steet, Richmond, VA
• 23116
• 37.542770 -77.443894
• London, UK

The location datatype provides some or all of these fields:

		country United States
		street 123 Main Street
		lat 37.643683
		postal 23116
		state VA
		city Mechanicsville
		lon -77.341372
		quality 87
		

How many of these fields are available to you depends on the accuracy of the location you provide. The quality field is an indication of the accuracy of the location provided. A specific street address will often have a quality in the 80s or higher. Providing just a city name, like "London", returns a quality of about 40, and providing just a country name, like "Portugal", yields a quality of only 10.

To see what data Location Input is providing, place the module on the Editor Canvas, then enter a value in the module's Debug field. Click on the module's title bar to make sure it's the selected module (the title bar turns orange), then click the Refresh link in the Debugger.

This module lets the user specify a number (either integer or floating point) as input to a Pipe. This module connects to other modules that use numeric input, such as Truncate, Filter, Yahoo! Local, Google Base, and Simple Math.

Use this module any time you need to wire text input into your Pipe. Many of the other modules can accept text, including all the String modules, almost all of the Source modules (except Fetch Feed), Filter, For Each: Annotate, Regex, and Rename.

This module lets the user specify a URL used by the Pipe. URL Input can be wired into any of the Sources modules as well as the Filter, For Each: Annotate, Regex, Rename, and URL Builder modules.

Use this module any time you need to add sensitive input data into your Pipe, such as aplication IDs, usernames or passwords.

By marking the debug or default values as private (check the checkbox), you prevent anyone other than the owner of the Pipe from seeing that value. In addition, private debug or default values will not be copied if the Pipe is cloned (except by the owner).

Regardless of the "private" setting, the "default" value in the user input will always be used when running the Pipe outside of the editor (such as the Pipe's run page, or through the RSS, JSON, KML requests).