RailsCasts Pro episodes are now free!

Learn more or hide this

Time in Text Field

#32 Time in Text Field

May 16, 2007 | 5 minutes | Active Record, Forms
Although Rails does allow you to edit time attributes with text fields, it's not very flexible. In this episode you will learn how to use a virtual attribute to format the time to your liking.
Click to Play Video ▶
  • Download:
  • mp4Full Size H.264 Video (8.83 MB)
  • m4vSmaller H.264 Video (5.81 MB)
  • webmFull Size VP8 Video (15.1 MB)
  • ogvFull Size Theora Video (10.3 MB)
tasks/_form.rhtml 
<%= f.text_field :due_at_string %>
models/task.rb 
def due_at_string
  due_at.to_s(:db)
end

def due_at_string=(due_at_str)
  self.due_at = Time.parse(due_at_str)
rescue ArgumentError
  @due_at_invalid = true
end

def validate
  errors.add(:due_at, "is invalid") if @due_at_invalid
end