Rails display American date format when using Bootstrap datepicker

Question

I'm trying to use the guidance here to convert my date format in my model. The reason I am doing this is I want my user to see the date format as 7/20/2014, but I need to save that date into the database as 2014-7-20. I tried to implement that with this code, but it is not changing the date format when creating or reading:

class Inquiry < ActiveRecord::Base
    belongs_to :user

    def date_requested
        read_attribute(:date_requested).strftime("%m/%d/%Y")
    end

    def date_requested=(date_requested)
        write_attribute(:date_requested, date_requested.strftime("%Y-%m-%d"))
    end
end

Are you using a datepicker?? like [jQuery datepicker](http://jqueryui.com/datepicker/)?? — Justin, Jul 14 '14 at 22:07
Honestly I'm just looking for the best way to use datepicker and display m/d/year, but save to the database in the expected format. When editing forms I want to display in m/d/year as well. — Casey, Jul 14 '14 at 22:21

Casey · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-15T00:30:39.847

Ok, I figured this out. Here's what I did to use American style dates with Bootstrap datepicker:

Add the gem american_date to your gemfile: gem 'american_date'. This gem parses a date as m/d/yy into the format required by the database.
Run bundle install in terminal

Set your form field to show a value rather than what is actually in the database:

  <%= f.text_field :requested_date, :value => @inquiry.requested_date.strftime("%m/%d/%Y"), 'data-behaviour' => 'datepicker' %>

Edit your index or show file to display the American format: <%= @inquiry.requested_date.strftime("%m/%d/%Y") %>

This is working great for me.

Rails display American date format when using Bootstrap datepicker

1 Answers1