Rails partial dates -

my table has release_date column saves in format

2002-02-01

in model have

validates_date :release_date, :allow_blank => true 

in new view have following

<%= f.label :release_date, class: "control-label" %>               <%= f.date_select :release_date, :start_year => date.current.year, :end_year => 1970, :include_blank => true %> 

with gives 3 separate drop downs selecting date.

what want partial date selectable when user knows year, or month , year. thought might work appropriate allow_blank tags in doesn't if select , month , year leave day blank doesn't save date db @ all.

how can allow partial dates? preferably saving same format used existing data isn't invalid.

in show view call release_date this

<%= @miniature.release_date.strftime("%d %b %y") unless @miniature.release_date.blank? %> 

i able display whole date when available , if not have appear

feb 2002

or

2002

where that's available.

i guess release_date should date column, means full-date required creating record year or year+month given.

you may need integer column, date_mask example, tell parts(year, month, day) available , modify create action in controller store date_mask information.

class mycontroller < applicationcontroller   def create     #...     if params[:my_model][:"release_date(2i)"] == ''       # no month given, insert fake month , day       params[:my_model][:"release_date(2i)"] = '1'       params[:my_model][:"release_date(3i)"] = '1'       mask = 4 # 100     elsif params[:my_model][:"release_date(3i)"] == ''       # no day given, insert fake day       params[:my_model][:"release_date(3i)"] = '1'       mask = 6 # 110     else       # full-date       mask = 7 # 111     end     # ...     mymodel.create(my_model_params.merge(date_mask: mask))     # ...   end    private    def my_model_params     params.require(:my_model).permit(:release_date, :date_mask)   end end 

in model, create method release_date_display show date according release_date , date_mask

class mymodel < activerecord::base   #...   def release_date_display     if self.date_mask == 4       return self.release_date.strftime('%y')     elsif self.date_mask == 6       return self.release_date.strftime('%b %y')     else       return self.release_date.strftime('%f')     end   end   #... end 

for existing data, insert 7 in data_mask column.

update:

an example handle partial date: https://github.com/sibevin/partial-date-app