Is it able to change the behavior of to_string for `Money.Ecto.Composite.Type` ?

[Daniel-Xu]

Right now, if we use en as default locale, the to_string return $132 for currency. However, this is not recognized by DOM field. Is there an option to change this behavior?

[kipcole9]

Daniel, thanks for the report. Can you send me the HTML of the relevant part? What are you trying to achieve? What output are you looking for?

[kipcole9]

BTW, the actual number formatting is done by Cldr.Number.to_string/3 so you can check the options available there too.

[Daniel-Xu]

I'm using live view and live validation, the html is normal number_input

                <%= label f, :single_price, "", class: "uppercase md:text-sm text-xs text-gray-500 text-light font-semibold" %>
                <%= number_input f, :single_price, autocomplete: "off">

from the changeset, the single_price is type Money, this will be serialized into $333.00. However, the dom differ can't parse this format.

#Ecto.Changeset<
  action: :validate,
  changes: %{

    single_price: Money.new(:USD, "333"),

  }

[Daniel-Xu]

From the error in console, I'm guessing the to_string result of Money.Ecto.Composite.Type can't work well with live_view dom diff.

What I want to achieve is to be able to change the output of to_string for Money.Ecto.Composite.Type to 333 instead of $333. Hope it's clear.

[Daniel-Xu]

I was able to solve this by:

1. change number_input into text_input
2. using currency_symbol: "" (this is not necessary, but it makes the field look like a number field)

[kipcole9]

Daniel, the error is probably because you are using a number input field and providing it with a currency string that includes non-digit input.

This has nothing to do with Money.Ecto.Composite.Type. The only relevant type is Money.t which combines a currency code and a decimal amount.

I believe you have a couple of choices:

1. Don't use a number input type, use a text input type. And then use Money.parse/2 in your controller to parse it back into a Money.t. This allows you quite a flexible input mechanism but it does mean you don't get any benefit from browser-side number formatting and validation. You do get a "round trip" experience though in which the output string can be parsed back into a Money.t if you need.

2. Just format the currency amount as a number and pass the number into the DOM. You can get the amount with Money.to_decimal/1 and then format it any way you want (Cldr.Number.to_string/3 or Decimal.to_string/2) for example.

The highest priority for ex_money is to preserve the integrity of a money-with-currency type and therefore I have no plan to modify Money.to_string/2 from its current behaviour.

[kipcole9]

Daniel, glad you found a good way forward. I know that there needs to be a better way to format and enter currency amounts in HTML and its on my "to do" list. Thanks for letting me know what you did so I can share that if asked again.