Rails 4 search from "home page" to other models/controllers - ruby-on-rails-4

Question

UPDATE 4-6-2015:
Double checked here:
https://github.com/activerecord-hackery/ransack
to make sure I had everything right, aside from a few hiccups I think I do. I am not clear how or what automagic makes the f.submit whisk the user away to that model index with nothing in that model filled out, and the index action taking presidence (hence after doing a search takes me to the index view of the groups (what I am searching on) and shows everything from db as if the Group.all was called ignoring the search string (that I can see in the address bar) completely.
Really not sure what I am missing I am sure it something minusculey stupid on my part.
EDIT/UPDATE: So i got most of this working, the search screen is going to that controller. I am not sure what automagic is causing that, I thought my respond_to could trap and send back json so I could this with an ajax call and update the table that is in the main page. THEN if they click on that table it takes them to the edit form of that particular item (i.e. the edit of the correct model).
My visitor_controller.rb:
def index
#search = Group.ransack(name_cont: params[:q])
#groups = #search.result
respond_to do |format|
format.html
format.js
end
end
Adding the routes file too:
Rails.application.routes.draw do
resources :groups
get 'visitors', to: 'visitors#index'
root to: 'visitors#index'
end
So groups is a controller/model that I am trying to search on (one of many, will use the example in the answer to do many when I get the one just working first.)
So I am building an app, I found a "simple search" tutorial for rails 4:
http://www.stefanosioannou.com/rails-4-simple-search-form/
But I think that this assumes you to search from the view/model and all that of your controller. I.e.
I am in the groups view, I want to search my groups all through that controller.
Really what I am doing and finding so hard to do is have a welcome page, that has three search bars. Each bar searches a different model/view/controller.
The welcome page is called visitors and has its own controller, and view just no model.
So my visitors controller has this:
class VisitorsController < ApplicationController
def index
#groups = Group.search(params[:gsearch])
respond_to do |format|
format.html
format.js
end
end
end
I was just trying to get one search bar working for my Group model, so in my Visitors index.html.erb:
<div class="span12">
<h3>Welcome IPA of NM</h3>
<!-- search bar here -->
<% form_tag group_path, :method => 'get' do %>
<p>
<%= text_field_tag :gsearch, params[:search] %>
<%= submit_tag "Search Groups", :name => nil %>
</p>
<% end %>
</div>
This fails though as it says
No route matches {:action=>"show", :controller=>"groups"} missing required keys: [:id]
so here is my groups controller:
class GroupsController < ApplicationController
before_action :set_group, only: [:show, :edit, :update, :destroy]
def show
end
private
# Use callbacks to share common setup or constraints between actions.
def set_group
#group = Group.find(params[:id])
end
end
I am sure somehow the form code in the visitors index.html.erb is working with that group_path which means it is trying to do a show but has no ID yet when just starting? I really am lost, new to rails4 and not sure what I am missing here. I am guessing the convention is do all things from your model/view/controller not a cross views as I am trying to do here? So something I have to do extra to get around the convention or I am doing the whole thing wrong from the get go?

Answer 1

I would highly recommend Ransack for search queries in rails. You can view it here > https://github.com/activerecord-hackery/ransack and you can also watch an awesome rails cast by Ryan Bates over at http://railscasts.com/episodes/370-ransack
Ransack works across the board, you could even search all 3 models from the same form.
Using ransack, you would simply use:
<%= search_form_for #q do |f| %>
# Search if the models name field contains...
<%= f.label :name_cont %>
<%= f.search_field :name_cont %>
<%= f.submit %>
<% end %>
Then the search controller processes this into #results:
def index
#q = params[:q]
#search = Model.search(name_cont: #q)
#results = #search.result
end
Then you would loop through the results on your show/index page.
<% #results.each do |result| %>
<%= result.name
<% end %>
This would show all of your results on one search page. If you wanted to search multiple models, you can either have multiple forms assigning a different instance variable for each one eg: #q1 #q2 #q3 or, you could search them all from one model by using different instance variables for the search and results.eg
def index
#q = params[:q]
#firstsearch = User.search(username_cont: #q)
#secondsearch = Post.search(title_or_description_cont: #q)
#users = #firstsearch.result
#posts = #secondsearch.result
end
Remember to add the routes =)
get 'search', to: 'search#index'