I can think of two solutions:

1) Store hours, minutes, seconds, etc. in separate columns in the database


Downside: a lot of columns


2) Convert and store the number of seconds


We still want to be able to show seperate fields for hour, minute, second, etc. in the form. We could write virtual attribute for each of these and write a before_save callback that converts the timespan to seconds (still messy tho).


Am I missing some other obvious solution? How do you people do this?


Question: Can one meet criteria, or satisfy requirements?
Answer: I see no problem with using either of the proposed phases. In fact, I think I almost prefer meet the criteria and satisfy the requirements.