Question

Can rails formatting helpers be used on an ‘edit’ screen? The format helpers (number_to_currency, number_to_percent) are great for index/show, but I don’t see how to apply them during edit. I have a custom heler that formats the date:

def my_date_helper(datetime)
    datetime.nil? ? "" : datetime.strf('%d-%b-%Y')
end

For example, if I have a starts_at attribute, that the user interacts with using a jQuery datepicker, the value placed in edit.html.erb in <%= f.text_field :starts_at %> by rails will be formatted like:

2011/12/19 00:00:00

I would like the user to be presented with a consistent format,so I want to apply the same format helper I use in show/index so the edit text field shows a format like:

19-Jan-2011

Answer 1

I just had a ‘duh’ moment. To doesn’t seem there’s any easy, rails-ey way. But it can be done really easy with unobtrusive JavaScript, like:

  $('.datepicker').each(function(i){
    var date = new Date($(this).val());
    $(this).val($.datepicker.formatDate('dd-M-yy', date));
  });

Four lines in application.js and you’re done.