HOWTO: Search with ferret/acts_as_ferret/will_paginate

Hi

This is an example of how i managed to get some basic search functionality working on my current development project. I am writing this from the perspective of a Windows user...I am using Vista Ultimate with InstantRails (Rails version 1.2.6).

First you need to install ferret.

Go to:

http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=1028

Download the latest win32 gem to C:\InstantRails:

ferret-0.11.5-mswin32.gem

Then open your Ruby Console Window to C:\InstantRails and install the gem:

gem install ferret

Now install the plugin via Subversion:

svn://projects.jkramer.net/acts_as_ferret/tags/stable/acts_as_ferret

Make sure you have the following line at the top of your config/environment.rb file:

require 'ferret'

I like to create a separate controller to handle searches:

generate controller Searches

Now add a search form to your website:

<% form_tag({:controller => 'searches', :action => 'index'}, :method => 'get') do %>
<%= text_field_tag "q", params[:q] %>
<%= submit_tag "Search!" %>
<% end %>

Or, if you want things done RESTfully, add a 'searches' resource to your routes.rb file:

map.resources :searches

And try this below...note that you should specify that this is a GET request, otherwise Rails will presume that it is a POST request.

<% form_tag(searches_path, :method => 'get') do %>
<%= text_field_tag "q", params[:q] %>
<%= submit_tag "Search!" %>
<% end %>

You then need to specify which models you want users to be able to search. You can optionally also specify which fields to look in...eg:

class Story
acts_as_ferret :fields => [:title, :description]
end

Now let's create the controller action that will allow the magic to happen!

class SearchesController
def index
if params[:q]
query = params[:q]
@stories = Story.find_by_contents(query, :limit => :all)
end
end
end

Now the view, searches/index.rhtml:

<% @stories.each do |s| %>
<%= link_to s.title, story_path(s.id) %>
<% end %>

That should be all to get you going.

When you do your first search, a directory called 'index' will be automatically created. This will be automatically updated. If you find that your searches display no results, or results only sometimes (this happened to me when i first tried getting acts_as_ferret to work, it might be an issue with ferret, i'm not too sure) - try this...

1. Stop the server.
2. Delete the 'index 'directory.
3. Restart server.
4. Run search again!

Adding pagination to your search results is made easy with the will_paginate plugin:

svn://errtheblog.com/svn/plugins/will_paginate

Modify the @stories instance variable in the Searches Controller as follows:

@stories = Story.find_with_ferret query, :page => params[:page], :per_page => 5

Now add this to the bottom of your view, searches/index.rhtml:

<%= will_paginate @stories %>

That's paginated search in rails!

For more info on ferret, acts_as_ferret, and will_paginate, follow the links below:

http://ferret.davebalmain.com/trac/
http://projects.jkraemer.net/acts_as_ferret/
http://errtheblog.com/posts/56-im-paginating-again

Happy searching!

Visit my blog

http://therailscoder.blogspot.com/

Last edited by pjay79 (2008-01-26 08:28:59)