# Extras

Guides for making the picker work better with rails, IE, etc. Note: I have no idea if these guides still apply for v5 or not.

## Rails 3

by dhulihan

You can easily override the default rails form helpers (`date_select` and `datetime_select`) with bootstrap-datetimepicker for a much nicer experience.

    # Add to config/initializers/form.rb or the end of app/helpers/application_helper.rb
    module ActionView
      module Helpers
        class FormBuilder
          def date_select(method, options = {}, html_options = {})
            existing_date = @object.send(method)
            formatted_date = existing_date.to_date.strftime("%F") if existing_date.present?
            @template.content_tag(:div, :class => "input-group") do
              text_field(method, :value => formatted_date, :class => "form-control datepicker", :"data-date-format" => "YYYY-MM-DD") +
              @template.content_tag(:span, @template.content_tag(:span, "", :class => "glyphicon glyphicon-calendar") ,:class => "input-group-addon")
            end
          end

          def datetime_select(method, options = {}, html_options = {})
            existing_time = @object.send(method)
            formatted_time = existing_time.to_time.strftime("%F %I:%M %p") if existing_time.present?
            @template.content_tag(:div, :class => "input-group") do
              text_field(method, :value => formatted_time, :class => "form-control datetimepicker", :"data-date-format" => "YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm A") +
              @template.content_tag(:span, @template.content_tag(:span, "", :class => "glyphicon glyphicon-calendar") ,:class => "input-group-addon")
            end
          end
        end
      end
    end

The time format used here is ActiveRecord-friendly, which means it will be parsed correctly when passed in through `params` to your record.

That's all there is to it! Now all of your forms that use `datetime_select` or `date_select` will be automatically updated:

    <% form_for @post do |f| %>
        <div class="form-group">
            <label>Published At</label>
            <%= f.datetime_select :published_at %>
        </div>
    <% end %>