Howto combine two fields in form to one field in model

Question

I have a column start of type datetime and want to display this as a text-field (to add a datepicker) and a time_select. I tried this with different methods and one was to use fields_for/simple_fields_for.

<%= f.simple_fields_for :start do |start| %>
  <%= start.input :date, :as => :string, :input_html => { :class => 'datepicker'} %>
  <%= start.input :time, :as => :time, :minute_step => 5, :input_html => { :class => 'input-small'}  %>
<% end %>

How can i transform this two fields to my needed datetime column in model? Or is there a better way to display two fields in a form matching one field in database?

Answer 1

You'll have to parse the seperate params in the controller and combine them to make a datetime.

I'd suggest making a model called StartTime to parse it

...app/models/start_time.rb

class StartTime
  extend ActiveModel::Naming

  attr_accessor :date, :time

  def initialize(date, time)
    @date = date.is_a?(String) ? Date.parse(date) : date
    @time = time
  end

  def to_timestamp
    # parse @date and @time into Datetime

end

Chronic is a helpful gem for parsing dates/time from strings

Hope this helps

Answer 2

Instead of combining two fields to form datetime you can simply use Jquery timepicker

check this http://trentrichardson.com/examples/timepicker/