override a default attribute don't behave like expected in form_for

rubyonrails-talk
1

Hello, I have a strange behavior and don’t know why.

If I override attributes from AcitveRecord object like below:

def end_date=(date)

date = date.to_date unless date.blank?

write_attribute(:end_date,date)

end

def end_date

date = read_attribute(:end_date)

I18n.localize(date) if date.present?

end

Everything will work fine but when I try call text_field in a form_for

block I get the database value and ignore end_date getter.

<%= f.text_field :end_date, :class=>“date”, :size=>“10” %>

The text_field will be filled with 2008-12-10 (mysql date) instead of

10/12/2008 ( I18n localized)

Anyone know why we get this behavior?

2

Looking inside rails code I found text_field use InstanceTag and this call before_type_cast and will return my value before turned in ruby object. What is the benefit os this behavior?

I can solve my problem forcing value on text_field but I think it is ugly.

3

I fix my problem with alias between attribute and attribute_before_type_cast ... I think active record do this because other kind of columns like decimals or numbers ( i'm not sure ) but it's not beautyfull when we need make alias only for make text_field behave like expected.