How would you store a business's hours in the db/model of a Rails app?

Question

I\'m creating a Rails app that will store the opening and closing hours for a business. Originally, I thought of simply using a text data type and letting it be free-form:

Answer 1

I'm currently setting up a directory listing for a client and we want give the user more flexibility. So: Let the user set up blocks for days:

We have a day (integer 1-7), opens (time), closes (time) and some shops or sights have summer and winter opening times, or they make vacations. According to schema.org you have to add a valid_from (datetime) and a valid_through (datetime).

With this setup the user can create whatever he wants:

# migration
class CreateOpeningHours < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    create_table :opening_hours do |t|
      t.integer :entry_id # your model reference
      t.integer :day
      t.time :closes
      t.time :opens
      t.datetime :valid_from
      t.datetime :valid_through
    end
  end
end

Example for the model:

class OpeningHour < ActiveRecord::Base

  belongs_to :entry

  validates_presence_of :day, :closes, :opens, :entry_id
  validates_inclusion_of :day, :in => 1..7
  validate :opens_before_closes 
  validate :valid_from_before_valid_through 

  # sample validation for better user feedback
  validates_uniqueness_of :opens, scope: [:entry_id, :day]
  validates_uniqueness_of :closes, scope: [:entry_id, :day]

  protected
  def opens_before_closes
    errors.add(:closes, I18n.t('errors.opens_before_closes')) if opens && closes && opens >= closes
  end

  def valid_from_before_valid_through
    errors.add(:valid_through, I18n.t('errors.valid_from_before_valid_through')) if valid_from && valid_through && valid_from >= valid_through
  end

end

With that setup you can create easily a is_open? method in your model. Currently I did not setup the is_open? method, but if somebody needs, give me a hit! I think I will finish it in the next days.