How to pass time_select in controller params? - ruby-on-rails

Question

<%= f.time_select :exact, {ampm: true, :discard_minute=> true} %> # t.time "exact"
How do I pass the above in params?
session[:challenge_exact] = params[:exact].parse_time_select! # got nil error
session[:challenge_exact] = challenge_params[:exact]
session[:challenge_exact] = [params["challenge"]["exact(1i)"], params["challenge"]["exact(2i)"], params["challenge"]["exact(3i)"], params["challenge"]["exact(4i)"], params["challenge"]["exact(5i)"]].join(',')
None of the above work. After the challenge is created I see that exact: nil even though it was populated in the form.
Started POST "/challenges" for ::1 at 2017-05-02 08:28:31 -0400
Processing by ChallengesController#create as HTML
Parameters: {"utf8"=>"✓", "authenticity_token"=>"oN+DzJK+/GGmpTOOVYMUJQdywuENwxhmX/EVeW6NSZ3w1MctoMd/VHS39d+JasEjHujO88nLPSB2qUKEhet5yA==", "challenge"=>{"name"=>"Write 3 Gratitudes", "categorization"=>"health", "category"=>"goal", "deadline(2i)"=>"6", "deadline(3i)"=>"2", "deadline(1i)"=>"2017", "push"=>"0", "message"=>"1", "mail"=>"0", "remind"=>["mon", "thu", ""], "exact(1i)"=>"2017", "exact(2i)"=>"5", "exact(3i)"=>"2", "exact(4i)"=>"08", "exact(5i)"=>"27", "conceal"=>"0"}, "number"=>"", "email"=>"", "button"=>""}
Redirected to http://localhost:3000/signup
Completed 302 Found in 47ms (ActiveRecord: 0.0ms)
After POST challenge a person then creates a user account...
Started POST "/users" for ::1 at 2017-05-03 01:02:13 -0400
Processing by UsersController#create as HTML
Parameters: {"utf8"=>"✓", "authenticity_token"=>"4Lv5NSfH9tMnC9+t5bVC5x1d571y0jhwsgvYU3t2sp85XAnNOsHk+FCmtGcj2wJVysV6IlAIzF4jCx1hIofwsNg==", "user"=>{"name"=>"test", "last_name"=>"daddy", "email"=>"testdaddy#gmail.com", "password"=>"[FILTERED]", "time_zone"=>"Eastern Time (US & Canada)", "subscribe"=>"0"}, "button"=>""}
(0.2ms) BEGIN
User Exists (0.5ms) SELECT 1 AS one FROM "users" WHERE LOWER("users"."email") = LOWER('testdaddy#gmail.com') LIMIT 1
SQL (2.3ms) INSERT INTO "users" ("time_zone", "name", "last_name", "subscribe", "email", "password_digest", "number", "created_at", "updated_at", "activation_digest", "activated") VALUES ($1, $2, $3, $4, $5, $6, $7, $8, $9, $10, $11) RETURNING "id" [["time_zone", "Eastern Time (US & Canada)"], ["name", "test"], ["last_name", "daddy"], ["subscribe", "f"], ["email", "testdaddy#gmail.com"], ["password_digest", "$2a$10$JSSPUl0JDnUXybnAuSnEO.q5DgZscaU3hRpcM4C5L0a0aEtflzb7ne"], ["number", "15169499507"], ["created_at", "2017-05-03 05:02:14.144232"], ["updated_at", "2017-05-03 05:02:14.144232"], ["activation_digest", "$2a$10$NDtWKvxuJm/Hb9YIOzuVIuPpttCZwjsgYws6HhEcbHc.PukxXNpeLa"], ["activated", "t"]]
(18.8ms) COMMIT
(0.2ms) BEGIN
User Load (0.3ms) SELECT "users".* FROM "users" WHERE "users"."id" = $1 LIMIT 1 [["id", 16]]
# AS YOU CAN SEE WITH INSERT INTO CHALLENGES FOR SOME REASON THE SESSION PARAMS FOR EXACT ISN'T PASSING FOR EXACT
SQL (0.6ms) INSERT INTO "challenges" ("committed", "name", "categorization", "category", "deadline", "remind", "message", "user_id", "created_at", "updated_at") VALUES ($1, $2, $3, $4, $5, $6, $7, $8, $9, $10) RETURNING "id" [["committed", nil], ["name", "Write 3 Gratitudes"], ["categorization", "health"], ["category", "goal"], ["deadline", "2017-06-03"], ["remind", "---\n- mon\n- thu\n- ''\n"], ["message", "t"], ["user_id", 16], ["created_at", "2017-05-03 05:02:14.434251"], ["updated_at", "2017-05-03 05:02:14.434251"]]
ActsAsTaggableOn::Tag Load (0.6ms) SELECT "tags".* FROM "tags" INNER JOIN "taggings" ON "tags"."id" = "taggings"."tag_id" WHERE "taggings"."taggable_id" = $1 AND "taggings"."taggable_type" = $2 AND (taggings.context = 'tags' AND taggings.tagger_id IS NULL) [["taggable_id", 40], ["taggable_type", "Challenge"]]
ActsAsTaggableOn::Tag Load (0.8ms) SELECT "tags".* FROM "tags" INNER JOIN "taggings" ON "tags"."id" = "taggings"."tag_id" WHERE "taggings"."taggable_id" = $1 AND "taggings"."taggable_type" = $2 AND (taggings.context = 'tags' AND
taggings.tagger_id = 16 AND
taggings.tagger_type = 'User') [["taggable_id", 40], ["taggable_type", "Challenge"]]
(17.2ms) COMMIT
Redirected to http://localhost:3000/
How it appears in console...
exact: 2000-01-01 02:32:00 UTC>

Answer 1

You can access exact params like:
> params[:challenge]["exact(1i)"]
#=> "2017"
> params[:challenge]["exact(2i)"]
#=> "5"
> params[:challenge]["exact(3i)"]
#=> "2"
> params[:challenge]["exact(4i)"]
#=> "08"
> params[:challenge]["exact(5i)"]
#=> "27"
You can parse time like this:
exact_time = "#{params[:challenge]['exact(4i)']}:#{params[:challenge]['exact(5i)']}"
#=> "08:27"
> session[:challenge_exact] = Time.parse(exact_time)
#=> 2017-05-03 08:27:00 +0530

Answer 2

I would do:
session[:challenge_exact] = components_to_absolute(params[:exact])
def components_to_absolute(components)
DateTime.new(components['exact(1i)'].to_i,
components['exact(2i)'].to_i,
components['exact(3i)'].to_i,
components['exact(4i)'].to_i,
components['exact(5i)'].to_i)
end