Need to check time is a valid time about date_validator

[oriolgual]

I'm not really sure I understand what you're trying to do. Just a quick note, have you tried something like:

validates :start_time, :date => {....} if start_time.present?

What would be an example value of start_time?

[amnesia7]

I just want to validate that the value for start_time is actually a time, eg "10:30", and not something completely wrong like "random string". It can be any time during the day, I just want to make sure that it is actually a time.

[amnesia7]

I've amended my model as you say, so it now contains:

validates :start_time,  :date => { :after_or_equal_to => Proc.new { Time.now.beginning_of_day }, 
                                :before_or_equal_to => Proc.new { Time.now.end_of_day },
                                :message => 'must be a valid time' }, 
                      :if => "start_time.present?"

and the test I had before trying to to post "random string" now fails correctly so that's good.

However, my app doesn't actually work at all now.

I use time_select to display 2 select boxes (hours, minutes) in my view. This new validation doesn't consider normal selections (eg 10 [hours] and 30 [minutes]) to be a valid time.

I've tried converting my view to use a text_field and tried typing "10:00" but that fails also.

Is it something to do with the way the time_select multiparameters thing works in rails?

Not sure if this helps or not but this is the gem I tried using previously (but it has a bug in it that prevents allow_nil/allow_blank from working correctly):

https://github.com/adzap/validates_timeliness/blob/master/lib/validates_timeliness/extensions/multiparameter_handler.rb

[amnesia7]

I've been having a think about my issue and what it is that I'm actually trying to do.

I am currently trying to validate date and time individually when what I should be doing is coupling them together and validating them then.

My issue, therefore, is extremely similar to the following: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6065860/trying-to-set-a-variable-in-before-validation-but-it-isnt-working (I'm also using a text field for date and dropdowns for the time). However, the SO user doesn't show their final resulting model content and I'm struggling to implement an equivalent based on the information on there.

Can you offer any advice?

When I add the following to make sure I'm implementing it correctly:

before_validation :construct_starting_at

validate :starting_at, :presence => true, :if => "start_date.present? && start_time.present?"

def construct_starting_at
  d = Time.parse(start_date)
  time = Time.parse(start_time)
  if start_date.present? && start_time.present?
    self.starting_at = Time.zone.parse("#{d.year}-#{d.month}-#{d.day} #{time.hour}:#{time.min}:00 UTC")
  end
end

but I just keep getting:

TypeError:
    can't dup NilClass

on the construct_starting_at line

and then the other tests fail saying:

NoMethodError:
    undefined method 'gsub!' for Mon, 16 Apr 2012:Date

also on the construct_starting_at line

[amnesia7]

I'm still not having any joy with this. I'm using a text_field for the date which is in the format YYYY-MM-DD and then I use a time_select (using 2 select boxes) for the time.

I've opened a Question on Stack Overflow but no takers yet : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9955977/validate-date-and-time-fields-together-in-rails-model/10152596

Any advice welcome.