How do I display Central Standard Time (CST) in my Rails view?

Question

UTC Time Display

I'm working on an application (training class app) that currently saves and displays the training class start date time as UTC.

Migration

class CreateTrainingClasses < ActiveRecord::Migration[5.2]
  def change
    create_table :training_classes do |t|
      t.datetime :starts_at
    end
  end
end

Date Time Select

Date Time Display

Local Time Display (Failed)

However, I want to save and display local time (CST). I've updated the date time select form field to display the desired local time.

<%= form.label :starts_at %>
<p><%= form.datetime_select :starts_at, default: Time.now.in_time_zone("Central Time (US & Canada)"), ampm: true %></p>

And I've updated the display to show local time. However, it is now showing the wrong time—even when I create a new training class.

<td><%= training_class.starts_at.in_time_zone("Central Time (US & Canada)").strftime("%B %d, %Y %I:%M %p") %></td>

Question

How do I save and display the correct local time for both the form and the class display?

References

• Rails datetime_select with time zone

Answer 1

You need to set time_zone in application.rb

config.time_zone = 'Central Time (US & Canada)'

Then restart server

Reference: https://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveSupport/TimeZone.html