February 9, 2023Rails1 min read

Rails adds include_seconds option to datetime_field.

Rails now allows to omit seconds part in the input field by adding the include_seconds option to datetime_field.

Previously, to exclude seconds from datetime, we had to parse datetime using strftime.

Before

Let's say we have a Product model and we need to show purchased_at as a date time field excluding seconds.

This is our ProductsController.

class ProductsController < ApplicationController
  def show
    @product = Product.find(params[:id])
    render :show
  end
end

And this is how our views/products/show.html.erb would look like.

<h1>Product Detail</h1>

<table class="table table-hover">
<tbody>
  <tr>
    <%= form_with model: @product do |form| %>
      <%= datetime_field("product", "purchased_at", value: @product.purchased_at.strftime("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M")) %>
    <% end %>
  </tr>
</tbody>

</table>

And this is how it will get rendered on the browser.

After

Now, Rails allows adding a include_seconds option to datetime_field, using which we can include/exclude the seconds.

<h1>Product Detail</h1>

<table class="table table-hover">
<tbody>
  <tr>
    <%= form_with model: @product do |form| %>
      <%= datetime_field("product", "purchased_at", include_seconds: false) %>
    <% end %>
  </tr>
</tbody>

</table>

This is how a browser renders it.

And suppose we need to include the seconds, we can pass include_seconds as true.

<h1>Product Detail</h1>

<table class="table table-hover">
<tbody>
  <tr>
    <td>
    <%= form_with model: @product do |form| %>
      <%= datetime_field("product", "purchased_at", include_seconds: true) %>
    <% end %>
  </tr>
</tbody>

</table>

Check out the PR for more details.