Is passing multiple params to thinking_sphinx search method absolutely impossible? - ruby-on-rails

Question

I have a page that when visted brings up the most recently active users. Above the users are some filtering options such as filtering by one or a combination of:
location
gender
sexual preference
age range
country
I'm using a form_tag helper for my form. My issue is passing each of these parameters to my controller:
class BrowsersController < ApplicationController
def index
#default_image = "/assets/default_avatar.jpg"
#users = Profile.search params[:search], :page => params[:page], :per_page => 26
end
end
If I was searching with one field with the param "Search" I would be fine but I have multiple fields, select menu's on my form. How am I suppose to pass that info to my controller in order to filter the search results?
I'm sure I'm not the first to use search filtering in ruby on rails
<%= form_tag browsers_path, :method => 'get' do %>
<p>
Location: <%= text_field_tag :location %><br />
Gender: <%= select_tag :gender,
options_for_select([["Select", nil],
["Male", 1],
["Female", 2]]) %>
<br />
<%= submit_tag "Search", :name => nil %>
</p>
<% end %>
<br />
Kind regards
update
#users = Profile.search 'HERE IS WHERE THE POWER LIES', :page => params[:page], :per_page => 20, :conditions_all => { :gender => params[:gender], :location => params[:location]}
I use :conditions_all to get my field params and in rails server logs I can see that they are being picked up.. now I just need to some how get them all seen by thinking sphinx
Update 2
i have has gender in the define_index block and indexes location because it seems i need at least 1 field.
this working to return genders:
#users = Profile.search params[:location], :page => params[:page], :per_page => 40, :with => { :gender => [params[:gender]]}
I've tried to check for both location and gender and it seems to work but I'll double check in console because it's returning 1 female in united kingdom out of 1000 and that could be wrong but I'll double check in console and edit this update appropriately.

Answer 1

I'm not quite sure where you got :conditions_all from - if you're dealing with fields, then :conditions is what you're after:
#users = Profile.search 'HERE IS WHERE THE POWER LIES',
:page => params[:page],
:per_page => 20,
:conditions => {:gender => params[:gender], :location => params[:location]}
But, it sounds like you've got gender as an attribute instead of a field - and so, you want to filter on it instead:
#users = Profile.search 'HERE IS WHERE THE POWER LIES',
:page => params[:page],
:per_page => 20,
:conditions => {:location => params[:location]},
:with => {:gender => params[:gender]}

Answer 2

As I said here, I will try to explain a bit of Thinking Sphinx and my suggested approach to solve your problem.
Let's say you have the following Profile model:
# == Schema Information
#
# Table name: access_number_campaigns
#
# id :integer
# latitude :float
# longitude :float
# created_at :datetime
# updated_at :datetime
class Profile < ActiveRecord::Base
GENDER = {1 => "Male", 2 => "Female"}
belongs_to :country
has_and_belongs_to_many :sexual_preferences
has_and_belongs_to_many :age_ranges
end
And you may have those models:
class SexualPreference < ActiveRecord::Base
has_and_belongs_to_many :profiles
end
class AgeRange < ActiveRecord::Base
has_and_belongs_to_many :profiles
end
class Country < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :profiles
end
Then you may define your ThinkingSphinx index in the following schema:
# within model Profile
define_index
has "RADIANS(latitude)", :as => :latitude, :type => :float
has "RADIANS(longitude)", :as => :longitude, :type => :float
has sexual_preferences(:id), :as => :sexual_preference_ids
has age_ranges(:id), :as => :age_range_ids
has country_id, :type => :integer
has gender, :type => :integer
end
And you can create a class to build the following ThinkingSphinx query to handle all needed associations and attributes:
Profile.search "your keywords", :page => 1, :per_page => 10, :with => {"#geodist" => 0.0..NUMBER_OF_METERS, :with_all=>{:sexual_preference_ids=>["1", "2", "3"], :age_range_ids=>["1", "2", "3"], :country_id => ["123"], :gender => ["1"]} }
You can see above a Thinking Sphinx search query with :with and :with_all hashes included. There is also an important Sphinx's #geodist function called. I hope you have readable example and the best reference for Thinking Sphinx gem you can find here:
Thinking Sphinx reference
Section about indexing
Section about searchin
Section about geodist
I hope you enjoy reading my example and very clear Thinking Sphinx reference.