How do I change the format ActiveRecord expects when parsing dates from a text field in a form?

Question

The problem

1. I have a Ruby on Rails model with a Date attribute.
2. In the form for this model, I am using a single text field with a JQuery datepicker

Answer 1

I initially thought this could be solved through the Rails internationalization features, but it turns out I was wrong.

Ever since Ruby 1.9, the standard format for date parsing is dd/mm/yyyy, so as to better accomodate international users. More details can be found in this SO answer.

That standard is maintained in Rails, as Date.parse is now used to process data from form inputs. Using a before_validation callback won't work because the field is going to be received as nil by the callback method.

Right now there are two gems dealing with this specific issue, namely that date parsing in Rails does not follow the locale settings from I18n.locale. Both seem to work well.

1. delocalize, by clemens - Seems to have been applied successfully in a decent number or projects and has the highest number of stars at the moment.

2. i18n_alchemy by carlosantoniodasilva - This one has been released more recently. The author is a Rails core team member, and a very active one at that. Definitely deserves a look.