JQuery DataPicker not picking up default format in MVC2

I'm using MVC2 and have included the Jquery DateTime picker. For some reason it is not using the default format settings when the pages loads.

The model is passing in a Date and I have set the format to 'dd/mm/yyyy' as I do not want the time to be displayed. The html.editorfor that the datepicker is attached to, shows in the standard 'mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss' format, consequently the validation kicks in with "invalid Date" if the model value if say '15th October 2010', because the standard format complains that there is no "15th" month.

Code from the DatePicker is...

<%= Html.TextBox("", (Model.HasValue ? Model.Value.Date.ToString("dd/mm/yyyy") :  
DateTime.Today.ToString("dd/mm/yyyy") ), new { @class = "date" }) %>

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
    $(document).ready(function() {
        $("#da开发者_开发知识库tepicker").datepicker(
        {
            dateFormat: 'dd/mm/yy',
            defaultDate: new Date(),
            minDate: new Date()

        });
    });
</script>

Code calling Datepicker...

<div>
    <%=Html.LabelFor(Model => Model.StartDate)%>
    <%=Html.EditorFor(Model => Model.StartDate, new { @class = "date" }) %>
    <%=Html.ValidationMessageFor(Model => Model.StartDate, "*")%>
</div>

Any ideas?

It seems the problem is actually with the HTML.TextBox rather than the actual JQuery...

This line seems to be the problem,

<%= Html.TextBox("", (Model.HasValue ? Model.Value.Date.ToString("dd/MMM/yyyy") :
DateTime.Today.ToString("dd/MMM/yyyy")), new { @class = "date" })%>

I have broken down the line as follows to check the different elements are working correctly, and they are...

<div><%=  Model.HasValue %></div>
<div><%=  Model.Value.Date.ToString( "dd/MM/yyyy" )  %></div>
<div><%=  DateTime.Today.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy")%></div>

So, simply - this line in a template causes the date formatting to be ignored... any suggestions?

<div><%= Html.TextBox("", Model.Value.Date.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy"))%></div>

Are you setting the ID of the textBox correctly, I can see you have a class "date" but not the id.

you may also need the localization files for the datepicker available at Google

I still can't see in your javascript where the selector:

$("#datepicker")

is associated to your textbox. Shouldn't the selector be

$('.date')

Maybe I'm missing something.