split a string and save it in multiple records - ruby-on-rails

Question

I want the users to be able to write down their skills as hashtags in a text_field. I already can store a string and split it up like (btw: a user has one account)
<% #user.account.hashtag.split('#').reject { |c| c.empty? }.each do |d| %>
<p><%= d %></p>
<% end %>
But that is not elegant as it's processed in the view right now and since its just one string which is displayed as an array, I cant iterate. What I want to achieve is explained in this video.
A user should write down his skills in one field, the string should be split up at every '#' symbol and stored in a field which should belong to the user, so I can do something like url.com/user/hashtag/xyz while xyz is the hashtag.
The video tutorial is made well, but it does not work for rails 5+ since find_by is not available anymore; also I don't want to create some new tables, because later I want to do the same with other models than account. Later I want to add a autocomplete function in a search field via gems like select2. That is why it might help to add another table for the tags? :S
thanks in advance!

Answer 1

so there are lots of things in this short question.
The first thing that I would do would be to create a hashtag table
class CreateHashtags < ActiveRecord::Migration[5.0]
def change
create_table :hashtags do |t|
t.string :hashtag
t.references :hashtagsable, polymorphic: true
t.timestamps null: false
end
end
end
This line is critical
t.references :hashtagsable, polymorphic: true
This will create 2 new field
:hashtagsable_type => :string, # This reference the model of the assiciation
:hashtagsable_id => :integer, # This reference the id of the assiciation
This new model should look like
# app/models/hashtag.rb
class Hashtag < ApplicationRecord
belongs_to :hashtagsable, polymorphic: true
end
Now your user model you should add this line
class User < ApplicationRecord
has_many :hashtags, as: :hashtagsable # User.last.hashtags
end
class Account < ApplicationRecord
has_many :hashtags, as: :hashtagsable # Account.last.hashtags
end
in your view should look like
<% #user.account.hashtags.each do |hashtag| %>
<p><%= hashtags.hashtag %> </p>
<% end %>
I hope that this helps and set you in the right path