$date not picking up current date - Sitecore - datetime

Question

I am having an issue while setting default value for datetime field in sitecore standard values.
I know that $date takes the current date. If I specify $date in standard values for a date time field , it always takes the date as "1/1/0001".
How do I fix this ?

Answer 1

It is possible to enter tokens in the fields on the standard values, and then these will be replaced with other values, but only when a new item which use that template is created. It will not set date for the existing items which use this template.
$date is one of the token and it's replates with the system date (yyyyMMdd).
There is a blog post written by John West which explains how to Expand Standard Values Tokens in Existing Items with the Sitecore ASP.NET CMS.
EDIT:
Here is the code which is a part of MasterVariablesReplacer class which is used to replace $date token:
text = this.ReplaceWithDefault(text, "$date", (Func<string>) (() => DateUtil.IsoNowDate), context);
It is called from the ReplaceVariables processor, which is a part of expandInitialFieldValue pipeline (see /sitecore/admin/showconfig.aspx for all the expandInitialFieldValue processors).
You can try to add your own processor to this pipeline and see why the $date is not replaced properly:
public class ReplaceVariables : ExpandInitialFieldValueProcessor
{
public override void Process(ExpandInitialFieldValueArgs args)
{
Assert.ArgumentNotNull((object) args, "args");
MasterVariablesReplacer variablesReplacer = Factory.GetMasterVariablesReplacer();
string text = args.SourceField.Value;
if (variablesReplacer == null)
args.Result = text;
else
args.Result = variablesReplacer.Replace(text, args.TargetItem);
}
}