Question

This is my first attempt at trying to implement a simple search form in my rails app, New to rails so forgive me if I have made some major mistakes

I have a search form that looks like this

  <%= form_tag({:controller => 'search', :action => 'search'}, {:method => 'get'})  do |s| %>
  <%= text_field_tag :search, params[:search] %>
   <%= submit_tag "Search" %>
  <% end %>

My controller

def search

@countrysearch = Recipe.find(params[:search])
end

For now i am outputting my results like so

  <h4>output</h4>
  <%= @countrysearch %>

I am getting an output but if i search for a word like Wales, i get an error saying could not find by id, but if i search for an id like 17 then i get

  #<Recipe:0x97b0fa8> 

I have looked into the find_by_sql method but my understanding of this is not there yet, im unsre of the syntax to search dependent on the string I enter, though I guess that doesn’t matter as the params are the content of the search field?

If any can help then it would be much appreciated

Thanks

Answer 1

The model find method (Recipe.find()) expects the numeric id of the instance (a specific recipe). But it looks like you’re searching by country name. There are lots of ways to do this in Rails. First, however, I assume that your recipe model has an attribute like “country” whose values are like “Wales”.

If so, then you could make your search method like this:

def search
  @countrysearch = Recipe.find_by_country(params[:search])
end

Or alternatively you could use the new approach in Rails 3

def search
  @countrysearch = Recipe.where(:country => params[:search])
end

Don’t use find_by_sql — it will work, and it’s not bad, but then you’re missing some of the main power of Rails.

There are a couple of other things worth mentioning:

• You’ll get an error in the view if the search returns no results. Before referencing the @countrysearch instance variable, test for nil using if @countrysearch.nil? or for the positive case if @countrysearch.present?
• Chances are there will be more than one recipe from Wales, so expect not an instance of Recipe back, but a collection of them — in your view, iterate using
  <% @countrysearch.each do |recipe| %>
  <%= recipe.name %>
  …
  <% end %>
• Similarly, if you use the finder method you should go with Recipe.find_all_by_country
• Storing the country name in the Recipe model is not a great practice. Create a model containing countries.
• You probably want a case-insensitive search (“Wales” != “wales”)