Question

I am doing a before_validation as follows:

event.rb

attr_accessor :start_date
attr_accessible :start_time #recorded in database as a datetime

before_validation :build_start_time

...

def build_start_time
  begin
    self.start_time = DateTime.parse(start_date)
  rescue
      errors.add(:start_date, "invalid date")
      return false
  end
end

and the controller looks like:

def create
  @event = events.build(params[:event])
  if @event.save
    # some other method calls
    redirect_to @event
  else
    redirect_to :root
  end
end

start_date is being set by a <%= f.text_field :start_date %> call in a form view, and when I check the params it is being passed to the ‘Create’ method of the model controller correctly, but in the build_start_time method it is nil, so self.start_time is not being set. Can you explain why it would be nil and what the solution would be? I also tried referring to it as self.start_date but that didn’t make a difference.

Thanks

Answer 1

Have you tried making start_date also accessible?