Question

I have a models.DateTimeField() field in my django model.

I am using backbone to display this model. I want to be able to pretty print the date.

I tried the following but it says invalid date:

App.House = Backbone.Model.extend({
    url: function() {
        return API_URL + this.id;
    },
    initialize: function() {
        // displays Invalid Date when printed in template
        this.set('pretty_created_at',new Date(this.get('created_at')));  
    },
});

When looking at the API response from the server, I see that the date has the following format:

"created_at": "2012-06-24T05:00:00+00:00"

Answer 1

After debugging I realized that what was happening is that the model was being initalized like this:

house = new House()

Therefore, the created_at attribute was undefined.

I decided to use timeago.js to display the information. However, a workaround for this problem could be:

App.House = Backbone.Model.extend({
    url: function() {
        return API_URL + this.id;
    },
    created_at: function() {
        // further processing could be performed here
        // before returning. You might want to return a 
        // formatted string or something...
        return new Date(this.get('created_at'));

    },
});