Question

I got a little problem to understand where should I add an method that all the models can have access to it. I read other similar posts but it’s not very clear where to add it. Some of them said about add it on “/lib” as a module an then include it in the model class (Already try this without luck). So what it’s the best practice for add this?

I’m trying the following:

My module on: /lib/search.rb

module Search     
   def self.search(params,columns_search)
        srch = params[:search]

        if srch.blank?
          scoped
        else
          search= []
          #Add conditions for the search
          columns_search.map do |column|
            search << (sanitize_sql_for_conditions ["LOWER(CAST(#{column} as TEXT)) LIKE ?", "%#{srch.downcase}%"])
         end

          where("(#{conditions.join(" and ")})")

    end
end

On my model cars.rb

class Cars < ActiveRecord::Base
  include Search

  attr_accessible :name

end

But i’m getting the following error on my console:

Started GET “/cars” for 127.0.0.1 at 2012-08-01 11:56:54 -0500

ActionController::RoutingError (uninitialized constant Car::Search):
app/models/car.rb:2:in `’

Any help will be appreciated! 🙂

Answer 1

The technique you mention seems like a reasonable approach – create a module (which will probably live in /lib) that defines the methods you want the models to have, and then include it in each model that needs it.

For instance, my current project has Images, Videos and Audios, all of which have certain method that should be available to them because they’re all types of media.
I define a module in lib/media.rb:

module Media
  def self.included(base)
    # Associations etc. go here
    base.has_many :things
    base.mount_uploader :image, ImageUploader
    base.attr_accessible :image
    base.before_save :do_something
  end

  def do_something(argument=nil)
    #stuff
  end

end

And then in each of the media models, I include it:

class Video < ActiveRecord::Base
  include Media

end

I can then call Video.first.do_something, just as though the method were defined in the model.