Pass value from view to Controller without querystring - ruby-on-rails

Question

I am having index method to list all students. Now I am adding search in the index with one text_field_tag. My function is working but the search value is showing as query string in the url. I don't want this.
My view code:
<p>
<%= form_tag students_path, :method => 'get' do %>
Find by name: <%= text_field_tag :search %>
<%= submit_tag "Search", :name => nil %>
<% end %>
</p>
My controller code is
def index
searchString = params[:search]
if searchString
#students = Student.where("LastName like ?", "%#{searchString}%").paginate(:page => params[:page])
else
#students = Student.paginate(:page => params[:page])
end
end
My current url look like below:
http://localhost:3000/students?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search=A
I just need like /students. Please suggest the best practice

Answer 1

You need to use POST request instead of GET. In order to accomplish that, change your form_tag from:
<%= form_tag students_path, :method => 'get' do %>
to
<%= form_tag students_path, :method => 'post' do %>
What could possibly go wrong...
As #carlosramireziii mentioned, answering this question, requires a bit more work (and he is absolutely right!), so - there is update
1. Custom routes
If you are configuring your routes on your own, one of ways proceeding with this is to add a route, that will properly accept your requests. Take a look at config/routes.rb:
Rails.application.routes.draw do
match '/students', controller: :students, action: :index, via: [:get, :post]
# other definitions
end
Definition like this will create following route for you:
students GET|POST /students(.:format) students#index
This will make your new POST request nicely fall into students#index, generating expected result. However, if you are defining your routes via resources it's not that easy change. This leads us to...
2. Modifying standard resources routes
If routes for students are defined as follows:
Rails.application.routes.draw do
resources :students
# other definitions
end
the following routes are registered:
students GET /students(.:format) students#index
POST /students(.:format) students#create
new_student GET /students/new(.:format) students#new
edit_student GET /students/:id/edit(.:format) students#edit
student GET /students/:id(.:format) students#show
PATCH /students/:id(.:format) students#update
PUT /students/:id(.:format) students#update
DELETE /students/:id(.:format) students#destroy
This indicates, the POST request falls into students#create. In order to make it work, you need to change the create action, to something like:
class StudentsController < ApplicationController
# code omitted
def create
if params.include?('search')
#students = Student.where("LastName like ?", "%#{searchString}%").paginate(:page => params[:page])
render :index
else
# your current code from create action
end
end
end
While this will work, it is not recommended to do it this way. The create action does two things now, which is considered a bad pattern (or bad smell at least), and it is error prone.
So, what can we do?
Making search the right way
1. Custom search route
Define custom collection route:
Rails.application.routes.draw do
resources :students do
collection do
post :search
end
end
# other definitions
end
This registers following routes:
search_students POST /students/search(.:format) students#search
students GET /students(.:format) students#index
POST /students(.:format) students#create
new_student GET /students/new(.:format) students#new
edit_student GET /students/:id/edit(.:format) students#edit
student GET /students/:id(.:format) students#show
PATCH /students/:id(.:format) students#update
PUT /students/:id(.:format) students#update
DELETE /students/:id(.:format) students#destroy
You need to change your form_tag as follows:
<%= form_tag search_students_path, :method => 'post' do %>
And add search action to StudentsController:
class StudentsController < ApplicationController
# code omitted
def search
#students = Student.where("LastName like ?", "%#{searchString}%").paginate(:page => params[:page])
# If you don't want to create separate template for `search`,
# you can try to reuse your `index` template with
# render :index
end
end
2. Use students#index with params passed in URL
This approach is more REST-y, and it makes it available to pass the whole URL to someone else, so the another person is able to see exactly the same result of filtering, which is impossible with params "hidden" in POST request.
I hope I've covered all possibilities. If you have any questions - I'm more than happy to answer!
Good luck!