Why does my search show all results with searching? - ruby-on-rails

Question

I setup a search on my Products index page with PgSearch and Will-Paginate like this:
ProductsController
def index
#products = Product.text_search(params[:query]).page(params[:page]).per_page(5)
end
Products Model
include PgSearch
pg_search_scope :search,
def self.text_search(query)
if query.present?
search(query)
else
scoped
end
end
Product index page
<%= form_tag products_path, method: :get do %>
<%= text_field_tag :query, params[:query] %>
<%= submit_tag "Search", name: nil %>
<% end %>
<% if #products.blank? %>
No Results
<% else %>
<% #products.each do |product| %>
<%= product.name %>
<% end %>
<% end %>
But the problem I'm having now is that when I go to the Product index page, it shows all of the products when I want it to show nothing until a search is done. If the search is blank, return No Results but when you first hit the page it should show nothing. How would this be done?

Answer 1

You probably want to only run a text_search when a search parameter is present. You can put this logic into the view, the controller, or in the model.
In the view
<% if params[:query].present? %>
<% if #products.blank? %>
No Results
<% else %>
<% #products.each do |product| %>
<%= product.name %>
<% end %>
<% end %>
<% end %>
In the controller
def index
if params[:query].present?
#products = Product.text_search(params[:query]).page(params[:page]).per_page(5)
else
#products = Product.none # NOTE: Rails 4 only
end
end
In the model
# create a new method to encapsulate this search logic then use it in the controller
def self.search(value)
if value.present?
Product.text_search(value)
else
Product.none # NOTE: Rails 4 only
end
end
The old saying goes "fat model, skinny controller" so you might want to opt for the model method which will keep your controller and views simpler.

Answer 2

Put your display logic inside an if statement:
<% if params[:query].present? %>
<% if #products.blank? %>
No Results
<% else %>
<% #products.each do |product| %>
<%= product.name %>
<% end %>
<% end %>
<% end %>

Answer 3

Although I'm not familiar with how pg search works, you could do something like this in your method.
It's a nice refactoring as well as it avoids checking for existence and making decisions on params (code smell)
def self.text_search(query = "")
search(query)
end
As I said, not sure how pg_search works. Maybe when you browse for nothing, it returns all records. If that's the case, you can just have it return an empty array. Something like this would do
def self.text_search(query)
return [] if query.nil?
search(query)
end