Home / Setting date_select or datetime_select to current date (and time)

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• development
• ruby
• rails
• javascript

This code allows you to set the value of a date_select or datetime_select to the current date or date+time. Stick it in your application.js and then add a new element to your HTML, something like this: <a href="javascript: DateEdit.set_now('post', 'pub_date');">now</a>

var DateEdit = {

  Year    : 1,
  Month   : 2,
  Day     : 3,
  Hour    : 4,
  Minute  : 5,

  edit_element : function(element_type, model, attribute)
  {
    return document.getElementById(
      model + '_' + attribute + '_' + element_type.toString() + 'i'
    );
  },

  set_value : function(element_type, model, attribute, value)
  {
    DateEdit.edit_element(element_type, model, attribute).selectedIndex = value;
  },

  set_year : function(model, attribute, year)
  {
    year_element = DateEdit.edit_element(DateEdit.Year, model, attribute)

    for (i = 0; i < year_element.length; i++)
    {
      if (year_element.options[i].text == year)
      {
        year_element.selectedIndex = i;
        break;
      }
    }
  },

  set_today : function(model, attribute)
  {
    var now = new Date();

    DateEdit.set_year(model, attribute, now.getFullYear());

    DateEdit.set_value(DateEdit.Month,  model, attribute, now.getMonth());
    DateEdit.set_value(DateEdit.Day,    model, attribute, now.getDate() - 1);
  },

  set_now : function(model, attribute)
  {
    var now = new Date();

    DateEdit.set_year(model, attribute, now.getFullYear());

    DateEdit.set_value(DateEdit.Month,  model, attribute, now.getMonth());
    DateEdit.set_value(DateEdit.Day,    model, attribute, now.getDate() - 1);
    DateEdit.set_value(DateEdit.Hour,   model, attribute, now.getHours());
    DateEdit.set_value(DateEdit.Minute, model, attribute, now.getMinutes());
  }
}