Issue saving non-string fields - Encrypted date test must be a value encrypted using SymmetricEncryption.encrypt

[Joe Ersinghaus]

I'm evaluating this gem for a project and have set up some fields on an existing model and running tests in console on a Ruby 2.4.2/Rails 5.0.6, SE 4.0.0 system in development mode. I'm having issues saving/encrypting non-string fields. Example on date field follows.

symmetric-encryption.yml:

development:         &development_defaults
  key:               1234567890ABCDEF
  iv:                1234567890ABCDEF
  cipher_name:       aes-128-cbc
  encoding:          :base64strict

model:

attr_encrypted :date_test, random_iv: true, type: :date
validates :encrypted_date_test, symmetric_encryption: true

rails console:

2.4.2 (main):0 > loan = Loan.new
=> #<Loan:0x00007f02646a0578
 id: nil,
 amount: 0.0,
.
.
.
 encrypted_date_test: nil>
2.4.2 (main):0 > loan.date_test = Date.parse("Nov 11 2017")
=> Sat, 11 Nov 2017
2.4.2 (main):0 > loan.save
   (0.2ms)  BEGIN
  Validation failed  #<Loan id: nil, amount: 0.0,...,encrypted_date_test: nil>
    => Encrypted date test must be a value encrypted using SymmetricEncryption.encrypt
   (0.3ms)  ROLLBACK
=> false

I tried encrypting the return on the Date.parse method using SymmetricEncryption.encrypt and then setting loan.date to that but also failed.

String fields work fine. I'm sure I've miss-configured something. Help is much appreciated.

[Joe Ersinghaus]

Sorry, I realized all encrypted fields must be of string type. Seems fairly obvious now. Comments in the mock User model here explain this.