How do i write a cleaner date picker input for SimpleForm

Question

I love the simple_form gem for rails but i dont like this line of code:

<%= f.input :deadline, :as => :string, :input_html => { :class => 'date_picker' } %>

I would like to write:

<%= f.input :deadline, :as => :date_picker %>

or even over write the :date / :datetime matchers completely.

But i dont really want to write a whole custom_simple_form

I think it must be possible...

Please help thanks

Answer 1

You have to define a new DatePickerInput class.

module SimpleForm
  module Inputs
    class DatePickerInput < Base
      def input
        @builder.text_field(attribute_name,input_html_options)
      end    
    end
  end
end

And you can now write

<%= f.input :deadline, :as => :date_picker %>

Off course you also need

 $("input.date_picker").datepicker();

in application.js

This is very useful to localize dates. Look at this:

module SimpleForm
  module Inputs
    class DatePickerInput < Base
      def input
        @builder.text_field(attribute_name, input_html_options.merge(datepicker_options(object.send(attribute_name))))
      end

      def datepicker_options(value = nil)
        datepicker_options = {:value => value.nil?? nil : I18n.localize(value)}
      end

    end
  end
end

You have now a localized date in the text field!

Update: a cleaner way to do the same

module SimpleForm
  module Inputs
    class DatePickerInput < SimpleForm::Inputs::StringInput
      def input_html_options
        value = object.send(attribute_name)
        options = {
          value: value.nil?? nil : I18n.localize(value),
          data: { behaviour: 'datepicker' }  # for example
        }
        # add all html option you need...
        super.merge options
      end
    end
  end
end

Inherit from SimpleForm::Inputs::StringInput (as @kikito said) and add some html options. If you need also a specific class you can add something like

def input_html_classes
  super.push('date_picker')
end