Rails: Date format in forms and database - ruby-on-rails

Question

I have a form which has a datepicker that shows a date with the format:
'%m/%d/%Y'
The problem is when I submit the form, this format is not a valid date, so it is not sent to the database on the INSERT INTO/UPDATE.
Nevertheless, it works if I submit a date with this format:
'%Y-%d-%m'
I have seen that I can do something like this before saving the object to the database:
my_object.due_date = params[:content_date].to_date.strftime("%Y-%d-%m")
But as I have more than one date field and more than one model with date fields, I would like to avoid doing an strftime() everywhere.
Do you have a better solution?

Answer 1

I'm using gem 'momentjs-rails', because of the datetime picker.
model
#deadline is saved in the db
#this is the getter-setter for deadline_string
def deadline_string
deadline.to_datetime.iso8601
end
def deadline_string=(deadline_str)
self.deadline = deadline_str
end
forms
#new form
<div class="field form-group">
<%= f.label :deadline %>
<%= f.text_field :deadline, class: "form-control new-task-deadline" %>
</div>
#edit form
<div class="field form-group">
<%= f.label :deadline %>
<%= f.text_field :deadline_string, class: "form-control edit-task-deadline" %>
</div>
js when saving to db
$('.new-task-submit').on('click', function (e){
e.preventDefault();
var localMoment = moment($('.new-task-deadline').val());
$('.new-task-deadline').val(localMoment.toISOString());
$('#newtask').submit();
});
$(document).on('click', '.edit-task-submit', function (e){
e.preventDefault();
var deadlineField = $('.edit-task-deadline');
var localMoment = moment(deadlineField.val());
var railsDate = localMoment.toISOString();
deadlineField.val(railsDate);
$(".task-update-form").submit();
});
js to show nice data on get request
//setting time and datetimepicker when opening edit task modal
$(document).on('shown.bs.modal', '#update-task-modal', function (e) {
var deadlineField = $('.edit-task-deadline');
var deadlineValue = deadlineField.attr('value');
var momentDeadline = moment(deadlineValue).format('MM/DD/YYYY hh:mm A');
deadlineField.val(momentDeadline);
deadlineField.datetimepicker({
sideBySide: true,
format: 'MM/DD/YYYY hh:mm A',
stepping: 15,
widgetPositioning: { vertical: 'bottom' }
});
});