Selecting months during PDF export with form submit. - ruby-on-rails-3

Question

I have a Rails 3.2 application with a model called Mileages. I have added a PDF output of the mileages index action using Prawn PDF.
The mileages_controller's index action looks like this:
def index
#mileages = Mileage.find_all_by_user_id(current_user.id)
#mileages_months = Mileage.find_all_by_user_id(current_user.id).group_by { |t| t.created_at.beginning_of_month }
respond_to do |format|
format.html # index.html.erb
format.json { render json: #mileages }
format.pdf do
pdf = MileagePdf.new(#mileages, view_context)
send_data pdf.render, filename: "mileages_report.pdf",
type: "application/pdf",
disposition: "inline"
end
end
end
What I would like to do, is have a link on the index view to the PDF version but alongside would be a start date and an end date. The PDF would then only show the mileage entries between those two dates.
The PDF link would simply be <%= link_to "Mileage Report (PDF)", mileages_path(#mileages, format: "pdf") %>
The activerecord filter would, presumably, be something like this:
#mileages = Milage.where(:date => ??..??)
I am unsure how to tie the above to the date inputs. Any help would be appreciated!

Answer 1

Try to have a kind of form submit since you have dates.
<%= form_tag(mileages_path(format: :pdf), method: :get) do -%>
<%= date_select("mileage_start", "date", order: [:year,:month,:day])%>
<%= date_select("mileage_end", "date", order: [:year,:month,:day])%>
<%= submit_tag %>
<%end%>
UPDATED with Final answer from chat
def index
start_date = params[:mileage_start]
end_date = params[:mileage_end]
if start_date && end_date
dates = get_start_and_end_date(start_date,end_date)
#mileages_pdf = Mileage.where(date: dates[:start_date]..dates[:end_date])
end
respond_to do |format|
# format.html # index.html.erb
# format.json { render json: #mileages }
format.pdf do
pdf = MileagePdf.new(#mileages_pdf, view_context)
send_data pdf.render, filename: "mileages_report.pdf",
type: "application/pdf",
disposition: "inline"
end
end
end
def get_start_and_end_date(start_date,end_date)
hsh = {}
hsh[:start_date] = build_date(start_date)
hsh[:end_date] = build_date(end_date)
hsh
end
def build_date(hsh)
DateTime.new(hsh["date(1i)"].to_i,hsh["date(2i)"].to_i,hsh["date(3i)"].to_i)
end
This way you can capture the date from params and format it in the way you want and place it in your query.