rails 4 multiple date ranges in one record

Question

I need to add multiple different start_time and end_time dates to this model:

class CreateCourses < ActiveRecord::Migration
 def change
  create_table :courses do |t|
   t.string :name
   t.datetime :start_time
   t.datetime :end_time

   t.timestamps
  end
 end
end

I have tried:

class Course < ActiveRecord::Base
 serialize :start_time
 serialize :end_time
end

But I get nil in console when trying Course.new(start_time: ['2014-12-01 00:00:00 UTC', '2014-11-01 00:00:00 UTC']). I have also tried different formats for the dates without success.

How can I achieve this?

Answer 1

1. You are passing String type objects to start_time, which is DateTime type.

Do:

class Course < ActiveRecord::Base
  serialize :start_time, Array
  serialize :end_time, Array
end

and pass appropriate type:

Course.create(start_time: [Time.now, Time.now - 1.month])

2. You are messing new and create.

You have to either use:

Course.create(start_time: [Time.now, Time.now - 1.month])

or

course = Course.new
course.start_time = [Time.now, Time.now - 1.month]
course.save