json - Can Rails automatically parse datetime received from form text_field -

can rails automatically parse datetime received form's text_field?

# in view <div class="field">   <%= f.label :created_at %><br />   <%= f.textfield :created_at %> </div>  # in controller params[:product][:updated_at].yesterday 

currently i'm following error:

undefined method `yesterday' "2010-04-28 03:37:00 utc":string 

if putting param model directly, rails generator boilerplate code does, activerecord takes care of you

def create     @product = product.new(params[:product])     @product.updated_at.yesterday #will succeed     #rest of method end 

other stuck like:

datetime.parse(params[:product][:update_at]) 

or

datetime.civil_from_format(:local, year, month, day, hour, minutes, seconds) 

but, in experience .civil_from_format doesn't work you'd expect daylight savings time.