In your Gemfile:

gem "has_safe_dates"

Do a bundle install, then for each model add the has_safe_dates class method to your model:

class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_safe_dates :published_date
end

You can now do things like this:

post.update_attributes(:published_date => '1st of November 2012')

And it will work.

Uses Chronic for parsing of the dates to help

HasSafeDates is developed under Ruby-1.9.2-p290

To get the tests to run, make sure you have sqlite3 installed on your system, then run:

$ bundle install
$ rake

Do the following to publish and push a new gem:

1. Make sure the local working copy is clean with no pending commits:

   $ git status

   On branch master

   nothing to commit (working directory clean)

2. Edit the version number and increment per SEMVER versioning:

   $ vi lib/has_safe_dates/version.rb

3. Run gem build to create the gem:

   $ gem build has_safe_dates.gemspec

4. Test install the gem locally:

   $ gem install has_safe_dates-0.0.1.gem

5. Commit any changes and tag the commit at the current version:

   $ git commit lib/has_safe_dates/version.rb -m "Releasing v0.0.1" $ git tag v0.0.1 $ git push

6. Push the gem to rubygems:

   $ gem push has_safe_dates-0.0.1.gem