Rails - Search by datetime_local_field

Question

I have an active record called 'test'. Each test has a StartTime and an EndTime, which are in the datetime format in a MySQL database. I have a view that includes a search form with 2 datetime_local_fields:

<%= form_for :test, :url => { :action => :search }, :method => 'get' do %>
  <div class="input-append">
    <%= datetime_local_field :StartDate, params[:search] %><br />
    <%= datetime_local_field :EndDate, params[:search] %><br />
    <button class="btn" type="submit">Search</button>
  </div>
<% end %>

This is the associated method from tests_controller.rb:

def search
  if :StartDate
    if :EndDate
      @tests = Test.searchRange(:StartDate, :EndDate).order("StartTime DESC")
    end
  end
end

And from test.rb:

def self.searchRange (date1,date2)
  where(['StartTime >= ? and EndTime <= ?', date1, date2])
end

I am returning 0 results each time! I can't figure out what is going wrong. I have an entry in my database where the starttime and endtime are both on 2015-10-22, and I search with the parameters 2015-06-01 and 2015-12-10. Why are the matching records not being returned?

Answer 1

:StartDate in your controller is not what you expect: It is just the symbol :StartDate . You will need something like: params[:StartDate] to access the params send from the form:

def search
  @tests = Test.scope
  @tests = @tests.from_date(params[:StartDate]) if params[:StartDate]
  @tests = @tests.to_date(params[:EndDate])     if params[:EndDate]
  @tests = @tests.order("StartTime DESC")
end

And I would use scopes in the model instead of class methods:

scope :from_date, ->(date) { where('StartTime >= ?', date) }
scope :to_date,   ->(date) { where('EndTime <= ?', date) }