Question

I have a controller with two different actions, but both need this same code, which is a little long, how can I allow them access to this same behavior but keep it DRY?

   @list = Contact.find :all,
      :select => "companies.name AS co_name, 
                  companies.id AS comp_id, 
                  COUNT(contact_emails.id) AS email_count, 
                  COUNT(contact_calls.id) AS call_count, 
                  COUNT(contact_letters.id) AS letter_count, 
                  COUNT(contact_postalcards.id) AS postalcard_count",

      :conditions => ['contact_emails.date_sent < ? and contact_emails.date_sent > ?', 
                      report_end_date, report_start_date],

      :joins => [
        "LEFT JOIN companies ON companies.id = contacts.company_id",
        "LEFT JOIN contact_emails ON contact_emails.contact_id = contacts.id",
        "LEFT JOIN contact_letters ON contact_letters.contact_id = contacts.id",
        "LEFT JOIN contact_postalcards ON contact_postalcards.contact_id = contacts.id",
        "LEFT JOIN contact_calls ON contact_calls.contact_id = contacts.id"
      ],
      #:group => "companies.id"
       :group => "companies.name"
    puts @list[0].attributes.inspect

Answer 1

You should move this code to model:

# Contatct model

def self.get_list(report_start_date, report_end_date)
  self.find :all,
    :select => "companies.name AS co_name, 
              companies.id AS comp_id, 
              COUNT(contact_emails.id) AS email_count, 
              COUNT(contact_calls.id) AS call_count, 
              COUNT(contact_letters.id) AS letter_count, 
              COUNT(contact_postalcards.id) AS postalcard_count",

    :conditions => ['contact_emails.date_sent < ? and contact_emails.date_sent > ?', 
                  report_end_date, report_start_date],

    :joins => [
      "LEFT JOIN companies ON companies.id = contacts.company_id",
      "LEFT JOIN contact_emails ON contact_emails.contact_id = contacts.id",
      "LEFT JOIN contact_letters ON contact_letters.contact_id = contacts.id",
      "LEFT JOIN contact_postalcards ON contact_postalcards.contact_id = contacts.id",
      "LEFT JOIN contact_calls ON contact_calls.contact_id = contacts.id"
    ],
    #:group => "companies.id"
    :group => "companies.name"
end

Then you can use it in controllers:

@list = Contact.get_list(report_start_date, report_end_date)

Probably you can also split it to smaller parts and use scopes and defined associations instead of writing all of it on your own.