Rails - Jan 2006 - How to DRY with Fixtures (helper or extend Time class, how)?

I have a test/fixtures/users.yml like so:

apa:
  id: 1
  username: apa
  [...]
  created_at: <%=Time.now.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")%>
  updated_at: <%=Time.now.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")%>

I don''t like how I''m repeating myself with the strftime bit.

Is there some shorter Time method to format time for a (MySQL) datetime 
field that I''ve missed? The magic of created_at/updated_at does not
seem
to work with fixtures.

Assuming I want to avoid repeating myself, in what file would I add a 
helper method for this, or extend the Time class with a method? 
Apparently not test_helper - "undefined local variable or method".

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

On Sat, Jan 07, 2006 at 11:21:04AM +0100, Henrik wrote:
> I have a test/fixtures/users.yml like so:
> 
> apa:
>   id: 1
>   username: apa
>   [...]
>   created_at: <%=Time.now.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")%>
>   updated_at: <%=Time.now.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")%>
> 
> I don''t like how I''m repeating myself with the strftime
bit.
> 
> Is there some shorter Time method to format time for a (MySQL) datetime 
> field that I''ve missed? The magic of created_at/updated_at does
not seem
> to work with fixtures.
  created_at: <%= 5.days.ago.to_s(:db) %>
  updated_at: <%= 18.minutes.ago.to_s(:db) %>

You can add custom Time and Date strftime formats by adding key/value
pairings (in e.g. your config/environment.rb) to the 
ActiveSupport::CoreExtensions::Time::Conversions::DATE_FORMATS and
ActiveSupport::CoreExtensions::Date::Conversions::DATE_FORMATS hashes.

For example:
ActiveSupport::CoreExtensions::Time::Conversions::DATE_FORMATS.merge! :day =>
''%Y-%m-%d''

marcel
-- 
Marcel Molina Jr. <marcel@vernix.org>