Question

I am using a SQLite3 database in development, and now have started to use heroku to host my app. Heroku only supports PostgreSQL which I have modified in my GEM file

group :development, :test do
 gem 'sqlite3'
end
group :production do
  gem 'pg'
end

Now, everything is working as it should except when I query a date, I get this error

    ActionView::Template::Error (PG::Error: ERROR:  invalid input syntax for type date: ""
2012-09-12T10:03:03+00:00 app[web.1]: 
2012-09-12T10:03:03+00:00 app[web.1]: LINE 1: ...-12' AND '2012-09-12' OR DATE(start_date) BETWEEN '' AND '')...
2012-09-12T10:03:03+00:00 app[web.1]:                                                              ^
2012-09-12T10:03:03+00:00 app[web.1]:     137: <% if @project_search.total_entries > 0 %>
2012-09-12T10:03:03+00:00 app[web.1]:     136: 
2012-09-12T10:03:03+00:00 app[web.1]: : SELECT COUNT(*) FROM "projects"  WHERE (client LIKE '%%' AND industry LIKE '%%' AND role LIKE '%%' AND tech LIKE '%%' AND business_div LIKE '%%' AND project_owner LIKE '%%' AND exception_pm LIKE '%%' AND status LIKE '%%' AND (DATE(start_date) BETWEEN '2011-09-12' AND '2012-09-12' OR DATE(start_date) BETWEEN '' AND '') AND keywords LIKE '%%')):
2012-09-12T10:03:03+00:00 app[web.1]:     138: <% if @search_performed %>
2012-09-12T10:03:03+00:00 app[web.1]:     140: <style>
2012-09-12T10:03:03+00:00 app[web.1]:     139:

Here is my project.rb, as I think this is where I need to change something:

class Project < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessible :edited_first_name, :edited_last_name, :first_name, :last_name, :business_div, :client, :customer_benifits, :edited_date, :end_date, :entry_date, :exception_pm, :financials, :industry, :keywords, :lessons_learned, :project_name, :project_owner, :role, :start_date, :status, :summary, :tech

#validates_presence_of :business_div, :client, :customer_benifits, :end_date, :exception_pm, :financials, :industry, :keywords, :lessons_learned, :project_name, :project_owner, :role, :start_date, :status, :summary, :tech



def self.search(search_client, search_industry, search_role, search_tech, search_business_div, search_project_owner, search_exception_pm, search_status, search_start_date_dd, search_start_date_A, search_start_date_B,  search_keywords) 
  return scoped unless search_client.present? || search_industry.present? || search_role.present? || search_tech.present? || search_business_div.present? || search_project_owner.present? || search_exception_pm.present? || search_status.present? || search_start_date_dd.present?  || search_start_date_A.present?  || search_start_date_B.present?  || search_keywords.present?


todays_date = DateTime.now.to_date

if !search_start_date_A.blank? or !search_start_date_B.blank?
    search_start_date_A = Date.parse(search_start_date_A).strftime("%Y-%m-%d")
    search_start_date_B = Date.parse(search_start_date_B).strftime("%Y-%m-%d")
    todays_date = ""
    end

if search_start_date_dd.blank?
    todays_date = ""
end


if (search_start_date_A.blank? or search_start_date_B.blank?) and search_start_date_dd.blank?

where(['client LIKE ? AND industry LIKE ? AND role LIKE ? AND tech LIKE ? AND business_div LIKE ? AND project_owner LIKE ? AND exception_pm LIKE ? AND status LIKE ? AND keywords LIKE ?', 
      "%#{search_client}%", "%#{search_industry}%" , "%#{search_role}%" , "%#{search_tech}%" , "%#{search_business_div}%" , 
      "%#{search_project_owner}%" , "%#{search_exception_pm}%" , "%#{search_status}%", 
       "%#{search_keywords}%"
    ])

else

where(['client LIKE ? AND industry LIKE ? AND role LIKE ? AND tech LIKE ? AND business_div LIKE ? AND project_owner LIKE ? AND exception_pm LIKE ? AND status LIKE ? AND (DATE(start_date) BETWEEN ? AND ? OR DATE(start_date) BETWEEN ? AND ?) AND keywords LIKE ?', 
      "%#{search_client}%", "%#{search_industry}%" , "%#{search_role}%" , "%#{search_tech}%" , "%#{search_business_div}%" , 
      "%#{search_project_owner}%" , "%#{search_exception_pm}%" , "%#{search_status}%", 
      search_start_date_dd, todays_date , search_start_date_A, search_start_date_B, "%#{search_keywords}%"
    ])
end
end


def self.paginated_for_index(projects_per_page, current_page)
    paginate(:per_page => projects_per_page, :page => current_page)
  end

end

It seems SQLite3 could handle ” as an empty date, but PG can’t

Does anyone have some solution to this?

I am new to rails so please remember this when answering. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

NULL and '' (the empty string) are different things. Some databases, like MySQL and apparently SQLite, allow you to treat them as the same thing, but they are not. '' is not a valid date. PostgreSQL won’t accept another common MySQL-ism, 0000-00-00, either; watch out for that in case you’re used to using that as a placeholder or “invalid” value.

You need to fix your application so that it sends NULL for null dates. I expect that setting the date to the application-level null/nil value (Ruby seems to use nil as its null-value) instead of to "" will do the trick.