SimpleSearch brings simple search to ActiveRecord. It ads simple_search named scope that accepts query as parameter.

The idea is that you provide the query and plugin does the rest (splits query to keywords and compose where statement).

This can be very useful in case you just want to filter list of records by some query, you have autocomplete field, … or something similar.

*FOR RAILS 2.X SUPPORT YOU SHOULD SWITCH TO “rails2” BRANCH*

<% form_tag request.path, :method => 'get' do %>
  <%= text_field_tag :query, params[:query] %>
<% end %>

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  simply_searchable
end

# Columns: id, login, email, crypted_password, salt

class UsersController < ApplicationController
  def index
    @users = User.simple_search(params[:query]).all
  end
end

Simple query

User.simple_search("vlado")
# => SELECT * FROM "users" WHERE (users.id LIKE '%vlado%' OR users.login LIKE '%vlado%' OR users.email LIKE '%vlado%' OR users.crypted_password LIKE '%vlado%' OR users.salt LIKE '%vlado%')

You can also provide :columns => :column1, :column2 option to limit search only to those columns.

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  simply_searchable :columns => :login, :email
end

User.simple_search("vlado")
# => SELECT * FROM "users" WHERE (users.login LIKE '%vlado%' OR users.email LIKE '%vlado%')

More complex query

User.simple_search("vlado, cingel")
# will search for users matching 'vlado' and 'cingel' keywords
# => SELECT * FROM "users" WHERE ((users.login LIKE '%vlado%' OR users.email LIKE '%vlado%') AND (users.login LIKE '%cingel%' OR users.email LIKE '%cingel%'))

rails plugin install git://github.com/cingel/simple_search.git

kolodvor.net/2010/06/26/simple-search-rails-plugin/

Copyright © 2010 Vlado Cingel, released under the MIT license