Here's a quick guide to getting started with Calendar Date Select gem from Tim Harper, et al.

Dates in forms can suck when using the standard f.date_select. Consider the following:

Model:
class RegistrationSetup

include MongoMapper::Document
key :title, String, :required => true
key :open, Date
key :close, Date

end

And a typical generated view with "date_select:"

View:
<p>

<%= f.label :from %><br />
<%= f.date_select :from %>

</p>

This results in 3 spinners:

The object save fails unless you deal with the date chunking. In addition the use of 3 spinners can be a bit laborious for the user. Naturally, in the controller, we could reassemble the constituent date parts into a Date... Blech. I'm too lazy for that. Plus I want a more modern date selector!

A pop-up calendar is a better way!

Here's a way that I found to use the calendar_date_select gem (see here)

Step 1. Install:

sudo gem install calendar_date_select

Step 2. Get code from here: http://github.com/timcharper/calendar_date_select/downloads/

• unzip the download somewhere
• transfer the appropriate files into your project's directories as follows:
  
• public/images
• public/javascripts
• public/stylesheets directories
• put the stylesheets you want (I just copied them all) into
• public/stylesheets

Step 3. Add to layout/application.html.erb

<%= javascript_include_tag :defaults %>
<%= calendar_date_select_includes %>

Step 4. Add to environment.rb:

config.gem "calendar_date_select"

Step 5. Add to your UI; e.g., _form.html.erb

<div id="calendar">

<p>

<%#= calendar_date_select_tag "e_date", Date.today, :embedded => true, :year_range => 0.years.ago..1.years.from_now %>
Open: <%= f.calendar_date_select :open, :size => 15 %>
Close: <%= f.calendar_date_select :close, :size => 15 %>

</p>

</div>

And voila!

I am sure there are other ways to get this gem installed and working.