How can i search my Rails database?

Specifically, your problem is that the params hash isn't available inside of model classes.

Could you explain the 'indexed all fields' part? I've created something in app\models\client.rb (for example) called: acts_as_ferret :fields => ['business_name', 'screen_name'] Because I don't want to index things like the password. Is that what you mean by indexing? When I use the command (and look at my environment window), I see something that says: ENV["FERRET_USE_LOCAL_INDEX"] is nil, looks like we are not the server Will use local index. Any ideas?

Yes, that's what I meant. That warning just means that ferret is using the local server instead of a DRb server. It's fine for your development box - just disregard it for now. You can also specify the models you want to search, instead of saying :all, you could say: @results = Client.find_by_contents("jemen", :models => [Client, Tradename, Word])

Wow -- I think I'm really close. This is what I have as a search expression now: def search @title = "Search" if params[:q] query = params[:q] # First find the user hits... @results1 = Tradename.find_by_contents(query, :models => [Tradename, Client], :limit => :all) if @results1.empty? @results2 = Word.find_by_contents(query, :models => [Word, Tradename, Client], :limit => :all) if @results2.empty? @results = Client.find_by_contents(query, :models => [Client], :limit => :all) else @results = @results2 end else @results = @results1 end end endAnd it seems to be pulling the correct number of listings (querying all tables appropriately). Now, I'm just stuck on the display side of things. I have this sort of code for table display:<% if @results and not @results.empty? %><table class="database_dump"> <tr class="header"> <th class="name">Business Name</th> </tr> <% @results.each do |result| %> <tr class="<%= cycle('odd', 'even') %>"> <td class="name"><%= @results.id %></td> </tr> <% end %></table><% end %>It's giving me the proper *number* of results, but not the display I'm looking for. I can't figure out how to construct the term that says "for the results found in the query, give me the information from the clients table (specifically client.business_name, client.screen_name)". I'm so close! Thanks so far for all of the help.

That's because you're trying to use the result set (@results) as the instance (result). It should look like this: http://pastie.caboo.se/203575

Hmm, this is really close. In the three scenarios for search, this returns the correct values whenever the query matches the Clients table. If the correct match comes from Tradenames or Words, I get an error that says:undefined method `business_name' for #<Tradename id: 1, title: "Plumber"> or undefined method `business_name' for #<Word id: 3, tradename_id: 1, term: "pipe">This is returning the correct tradename_id for both queries (that is huge!). But, I'd like to return all results from Clients that have the same Tradename_id. I'm almost there!

I might have to mock up a test, but I guess you could write an ugly case statement to see which model was returned and then use the proper field.case result when Client # client code here when Tradename # tradename code here when Word # word code hereendPlease note that this is bad form, but it will probably get you working until someone can help further or you figure it out.

cdmwebs - I'm not completely sure about what the code above meant. My lack of knowledge on this one is massive, obviously. After playing with this thing after a late barbecue, I think I'm pretty close. Now, I've got the Search feeding into three blocks of code, depending on where the results come from. One block works -- it looks like this:<% if @results3 and not @results3.empty? %> <% @results.each do |result| %> <tr class="<%= cycle('odd', 'even') %>"> <td class="name"><%= result.business_name %></td> <td class="profile"><%= link_to result.screen_name, profile_url(:screen_name => result.screen_name) %></td> <td class="phone"><%= result.contact_phone %></td> <td class="zip"><%= result.address_zip %></td> </tr> <% end %><% end %>This block says, 'if the search term is found in Clients, return the following results'. It works great (I'm sure an actual Rails code expert would be horrified at the code that powers it). I've got another block that says 'if the search term is found in Tradenames, return the Tradename ID'. It looks like this:<% if @results1 and not @results1.empty? %> <% @results.each do |result| %> <tr class="<%= cycle('odd', 'even') %>"> <td class="name"><%= result.title %></td> <td class="profile"><%= result.id %></td> <td class="phone"> </td> <td class="zip"> </td> </tr> <% end %><% end %>What I would like it to do is another query. If a Tradename ID is returned (in result.id), then search the Clients table for all the clients that have the same Tradename ID. All of this code is stored in app\views\community\_client_table.rhtml Any ideas? This is the last step to finishing my demo -- I'm so close.

Can you make a http://pastie.caboo.se/pastes/new of the entire view?