Allow date inputs to default to blank

[myronmarston]

Currently there is no way to make a date input default to blank. You can pass a default using the :selected option, but it only uses this if ruby evaluates it to true. Otherwise if uses Time.now. So, if you pass :selected => nil, ruby considers this false and Time.now is used.

See discussion at:

http://groups.google.com.au/group/formtastic/browse_thread/thread/5ffd565ddcad412f

[justinfrench]

I have pushed up a fix for this in http://github.com/justinfrench/formtastic/commit/7b947cb528e1e13c1f62da23be07ba310ff2c1bd.

I only partially implemented Adam's suggested fix. We now only fallback to Time.now if options[:selected] is not present, but I didn't think it was necessary to force a blank option when selected is nil — that should be the form author's choice.

Closing for now, will be in next gem.

[twalpole]

Shouldnt options[:selected] override the value returned by the method on the object?. With this fix that wont happen for options[:selected]=nil since its OR'd with the value returned

[justinfrench]

So, let me get this straight:

• if :selected is provided as a Date or Time, regardless of the value in the object, we should pre-select that value
• if :selected is provided as nil, regardless of the value of the object, nothing should be selected
• if :selected is not provided, and the object has a value, we should pre-select that
• if :selected is not provided, and the object has no value, nothing should be selected

Is that the use cases I need to check/spec?

[myronmarston]

That sounds OK to me. For the 4th one, you may want it to select Time.now. That's the old default behavior and I imagine some people are relying upon that behavior. The main thing is to honor whatever value is passed for the :selected option. The default behavior (when no :selected option is provided) can go either way--just make sure it's documented.

[twalpole]

I believe the problem here is that :selected is being used to set the :default behavior, when the two typically have different meanings. :selected is typically to override what would normally be set, while :default would be to set what is selected when nothing is set. Maybe there should be an option to set :default (which would default to Time.now if not set). Then it would be

• if :selected is provided as a Date or Time, regardless of the value in the object, we should pre-select that value
• if :selected is provided as nil, regardless of the value of the object, nothing should be selected
• if :selected is not provided, and the object has a value, we should pre-select that
• if :selected is not provided, and the object has no value, and :default is provided then :default should be pre-selected
• if :selected is not provided, and the object has no value, and :default is not provided then Time.now should be selected

[justinfrench]

Sigh good advice. I'm a bit shitty about this because the only reason I'm supporting it is because Rails does. I think this stuff should all be done when initializing the model.

Anyway, thanks, looks like we have the use cases sorted, I'll go re-write about 50 lines of specs for three lines of code changes ;)

[justinfrench]

We've had more discussion in the google group, I'm leaning towards :default instead of :selected.

http://groups.google.com.au/group/formtastic/msg/ab160fb984ba1529

[justinfrench]

Ok, I have a patch in the "datetime" branch, would love some code review and real-world testing before it goes into master:

http://github.com/justinfrench/formtastic/tree/datetime
http://github.com/justinfrench/formtastic/commit/326b556ceb0fc6d0761a8a451507abe986e8fd9b

[justinfrench]

A few people have reviewed this, closing.