building a simple search form in Rails? - ruby-on-rails

Question

I'm trying to build a simple search form in Ruby on Rails, my form is simple enough basically you select fields from a series of options and then all the events matching the fields are shown. The problem comes when I leave any field blank.
Here is the code responsible for filtering the parameters
Event.joins(:eventdates).joins(:categories).where
("eventdates.start_date = ? AND city = ? AND categories.name = ?",
params[:event][:date], params[:event][:city], params[:event][:category]).all
From what I get it's that it looks for events with any empty field, but since all of them have them not empty, it wont match unless all 3 are filled, another problem arises when I try to say, look events inside a range or array of dates, I'm clueless on how to pass multiple days into the search.
I'm pretty new to making search forms in general, so I don't even know if this is the best approach, also I'm trying to keep the searches without the need of a secialized model.

Answer 1

Below is probably what you are looking for. (Note: If all fields all blank, it shows all data in the events table linkable with eventdates and categories.)
events = Event.joins(:eventdates).joins(:categories)
if params[:event]
# includes below where condition to query only if params[:event][:date] has a value
events = events.where("eventdates.start_date = ?", params[:event][:date]) if params[:event][:date].present?
# includes below where condition to query only if params[:event][:city] has a value
events = events.where("city = ?", params[:event][:city]) if params[:event][:city].present?
# includes below where condition to query only if params[:event][:city] has a value
events = events.where("categories.name = ?", params[:event][:category]) if params[:event][:category].present?
end
To search using multiple days:
# params[:event][:dates] is expected to be array of dates.
# Below query gets converted into an 'IN' operation in SQL, something like "where eventdates.start_date IN ['date1', 'date2']"
events = events.where("eventdates.start_date = ?", params[:event][:dates]) if params[:event][:dates].present?

Answer 2

It will be more easy and optimised . If you use concern for filter data.
Make one concern in Model.
filterable.rb
module Filterable
extend ActiveSupport::Concern
module ClassMethods
def filter(filtering_params)
results = self.where(nil)
filtering_params.each do |key, value|
if column_type(key) == :date || column_type(key) ==
:datetime
results = results.where("DATE(#{column(key)}) = ?",
Date.strptime(value, "%m/%d/%Y")) if
value.present?
else
results = results.where("#{column(key)} Like ? ", "%#{value}%") if
value.present?
end
end
results
end
def resource_name
self.table_name
end
def column(key)
return key if key.split(".").count > 1
return "#{resource_name}.#{key}"
end
def column_type(key)
self.columns_hash[key].type
end
end
end
Include this concern in model file that you want to filter.
Model.rb
include Filterable
In your controller Add this methods
def search
#resources = Model.filter(class_search_params)
render 'index'
end
def class_search_params
params.slice(:id,:name) #Your field names
end
So, It is global solution. You dont need to use query for filter. just add this concern in your model file.
That's it.