Rails 4.1.1 scope named 'search' conflict with Ransack.

[phallstrom]

I just ran into an error with 4.1.1 and ransack. I don't use ransack myself, but activeadmin does apparently. I have a scope on an AR model named 'search'. Starting my rails app would result in the following error:

activerecord-4.1.1/lib/active_record/scoping/named.rb:143:in `scope': You tried to define a scope named "search" on the model "MyModel", but Active Record already defined a class method with the same name. (ArgumentError)

4.1.1 will now complain if you try to use a scope name it considers dangerous. Dangerous is defined as any method name already defined by ActiveRecord::Base. Here's the git commit for it:

rails/rails@7e8e91c

Took me awhile to find it since AR doesn't define 'search' anywhere. Ransack does though:

alias :search :ransack unless base.respond_to? :search

https://github.com/activerecord-hackery/ransack/blob/master/lib/ransack/adapters/active_record/base.rb#L7

I'm guessing that ActiveAdmin doesn't use 'search' directly since this all worked in Rails 4.0.5 using my model's search method and ActiveAdmin on the same model.

Not sure what the right solution is since ransack wouldn't know about my scope name until it's too late and I'm sure most of your user's use 'search'. Maybe not.

I found the following to work if placed in a config/initializer file.

Ransack::Adapters::ActiveRecord::Base.class_eval('remove_method :search')

[jonatack]

Hi @phallstrom, thanks for the information.

Rails 4.1.1 and Ransack (official/master/rails-4.1 branch) are all working fine for me.

Which branch of Ransack are you using? Simple or advanced mode? Have you tried it without AA?

As this appears to be a problem with AA or from something else, and you have found a workaround, I'm closing this for now.

[phallstrom]

@jonatack It actually doesn't have anything to do with AA. I only encountered it because AA requires ransack (I don't use it myself). It may or may not be a bigger problem. The issue is that ransack aliases 'search' to 'ransack' and both of those get included into AR::Base.

With Rails 4.1.1 you can't have a scope that has the same name as any method in AR::Base. So, the net effect is that if you use ransack you can't have 'search' as a scope in any model.

I mostly brought it up because you are aliasing it and doing a check to not do it if it's already defined. Just wondering if you should add a configuration option to not use it all for those of us like myself who want a scope named 'search' but have some other gem using ransack.

[seanlinsley]

I'm guessing that ActiveAdmin doesn't use 'search' directly since this all worked in Rails 4.0.5 using my model's search method and ActiveAdmin on the same model.

That's correct; Active Admin uses ransack

I'm +1 on making search optionally defined.

[jonatack]

Thanks again for the heads up on that Rails commit; I follow Rails master but had not seen that one.

If I understand correctly, the issue comes from using a scope named 'search' for another use than search with Ransack, concurrent with Ransack adding the name 'search' to AR::Base?

If yes, it seems to me that this is a problem that most (intentional) users of Ransack will not encounter. Still, I'd be okay with a PR that doesn't add more overhead to Ransack to make search optionally defined.

[jonatack]

Another possible solution would be to mention your workaround in the Ransack README and wiki.

[tmandry]

+1 for optionally defined, this was a headache back when ActiveAdmin used meta_search.

[michaelschmitz]

+1 for optionally defined or renamed as well. I encountered the same problem by using ActiveAdmin/Ransack and Acts-As-Messageable.

[jonatack]

As @phallstrom mentions, making it opt-in would break a bunch of apps that depend on the search alias. The time to do that would be if/when we add any other backward-incompatible changes in a v.2.0.0 release. Will add @phallstrom's workaround to the README and wiki.

Allowing users to opt-out or set a different name in config/initializers/ransack.rb might be a good idea. If anyone wants to make a PR or has a better solution, that would be great.

[fragoulis]

With Rails 4.1.1 you can't have a scope that has the same name as any method in AR::Base. So, the net effect is that if you use ransack you can't have 'search' as a scope in any model.

Can please someone point me to the respective rails PR????

[fragoulis]

To answer my own question rails/rails#13389

[danielolivaresd]

I can confirm that to this day (ransack 2.1.1, rails 6.0.0, activeadmin 2.6.1), having existing ::search scopes declared in one or more Rails models and using ransack via ActiveAdmin gives this error.

The simple fix is to change the existing ::search scope name on your model(s) to something like ::own_search when possible.
However, I would agree that having the ability to configure the name of the scope used would be a nice benefit (please let me know if there's a way of achieving this, since I couldn't find it).