Rails - Jan 2006 - How do I set the default value for date fields?

I want my date fields to default to NIL or "", because the presence of
a
date means something.  My problem is that rails is defaulting the fields 
to today''s date automatically when I create a new record through the 
scaffold.  I tried removing the default ''0000-00-00'' and
changing NOT
NULL to NULL, but both columns get today''s date as the default  (see 
below for the table''s sql syntax).

So it looks like I need to code something, but I''m unsure to put that
in
the model or in the view (or if this is a form helper deal).  Any help 
is appreciated.  Thank you in advance!

CREATE TABLE volunteers ( ......other columns....
  birthdate date default NULL,
  competency_in_service_on date NOT NULL default ''0000-00-00''
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 AUTO_INCREMENT=7 ;

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I have not tried this,
but Chapter 17 (page 361) of Agile Web Development states you can add a 
:include_blank option to the date_select

HTH

Frank
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sean Clark" <smc7000@gmail.com>
To: <rails@lists.rubyonrails.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2006 12:39 PM
Subject: [Rails] How do I set the default value for date fields?

>I want my date fields to default to NIL or "", because the
presence of a
> date means something.  My problem is that rails is defaulting the fields
> to today''s date automatically when I create a new record through
the
> scaffold.  I tried removing the default ''0000-00-00'' and
changing NOT
> NULL to NULL, but both columns get today''s date as the default 
(see
> below for the table''s sql syntax).
>
> So it looks like I need to code something, but I''m unsure to put
that in
> the model or in the view (or if this is a form helper deal).  Any help
> is appreciated.  Thank you in advance!
>
> CREATE TABLE volunteers ( ......other columns....
>  birthdate date default NULL,
>  competency_in_service_on date NOT NULL default
''0000-00-00''
> ) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 AUTO_INCREMENT=7 ;
>
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> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>

Thanks Frank,
I was on 371 researching partials.  I''ll back track and see if that 
works.

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got it to work.  Below is an example of the code I changed around in 
app/views/admin/_form.html  (Admin is the name of my controller).  The 
'':include_blank => true'' is the part I added.  Thanks for
your help

<p><label
for="volunteer_birthdate">Birthdate</label><br/>
<%= date_select ''volunteer'', ''birthdate'',
:include_blank => true  %></p

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Glad I could help, others help me out all the time.

Frank
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sean Clark" <smc7000@gmail.com>
To: <rails@lists.rubyonrails.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2006 1:17 PM
Subject: [Rails] [Solved]: How do I set the default value for date fields?

> got it to work.  Below is an example of the code I changed around in 
> app/views/admin/_form.html  (Admin is the name of my controller).  The 
> '':include_blank => true'' is the part I added.  Thanks
for your help
> 
> <p><label
for="volunteer_birthdate">Birthdate</label><br/>
> <%= date_select ''volunteer'',
''birthdate'', :include_blank => true  %></p
> 
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> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>

Frank wrote:
> Glad I could help, others help me out all the time.
> 
> Frank
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Sean Clark" <smc7000@gmail.com>
> To: <rails@lists.rubyonrails.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2006 1:17 PM
> Subject: [Rails] [Solved]: How do I set the default value for date 
> fields?
I think you can also use :prompt=>"Select Birthday" instead of 
:include_blank=>true


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