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Searchlight

Searchlight helps you build searches from options via Ruby methods that you write.

Searchlight can work with any ORM or object that can build a query using chained methods (eg, ActiveRecord's .where(...).where(...).limit(...)). It comes with modules for integrating with ActiveRecord and ActionView, but can easily be used in any Ruby program.

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Getting Started

An introductory video, the demo app it uses and the code for that app are available to help you get started.

Overview

The basic idea of Searchlight is to build a search by chaining method calls that you define. It calls public methods on the object you specify, based on the options you pass.

For example, if you have a Searchlight search class called YetiSearch, and you instantiate it like this:

  search = YetiSearch.new(active: true, name: 'Jimmy', location_in: %w[NY LA]) # or params[:search]

... calling results on the instance will build a search by chaining calls to search_active, search_name, and search_location.

The results method will then return the return value of the last search method. If you're using ActiveRecord, this would be an ActiveRecord::Relation, and you can then call each to loop through the results, to_sql to get the generated query, etc.

Usage

Search class

A search class has three main parts: a target, options, and methods. For example:

class PersonSearch < Searchlight::Search

  # The search target; in this case, an ActiveRecord model.
  search_on Person

  # The options the search understands. Supply any combination of them to an instance.
  searches :first_name, :last_name

  # A search method.
  def search_first_name
    # If this is the first search method called, `search` here will be
    # the search target, namely, `Person`.
    # `first_name` is an automatically-defined accessor for the option value.
    search.where(first_name: first_name)
  end

  # Another search method.
  def search_last_name
    # If this is the second search method called, `search` here will be
    # whatever `search_first_name` returned.
    search.where(last_name: last_name)
  end
end

Here's a fuller example search class.

# app/searches/city_search.rb
class CitySearch < Searchlight::Search

  # `City` here is an ActiveRecord model (see notes below on the adapter)
  search_on City.includes(:country)

  searches :name, :continent, :country_name_like, :is_megacity

  # Reach into other tables
  def search_continent
    search.where('`countries`.`continent` = ?', continent)
  end

  # Other kinds of queries
  def search_country_name_like
    search.where("`countries`.`name` LIKE ?", "%#{country_name_like}%")
  end

  # For every option, we also add an accessor that coerces to a boolean,
  # considering 'false', 0, and '0' to be false
  def search_is_megacity
    search.where("`cities`.`population` #{is_megacity? ? '>=' : '<'} ?", 10_000_000)
  end

end

Here are some example searches.

CitySearch.new.results.to_sql
  # => "SELECT `cities`.* FROM `cities` "
CitySearch.new(name: 'Nairobi').results.to_sql
  # => "SELECT `cities`.* FROM `cities`  WHERE `cities`.`name` = 'Nairobi'"

CitySearch.new(country_name_like: 'aust', continent: 'Europe').results.count # => 6

non_megas = CitySearch.new(is_megacity: 'false')
non_megas.results.to_sql 
  # => "SELECT `cities`.* FROM `cities`  WHERE (`cities`.`population` < 100000"
non_megas.results.each do |city|
  # ...
end

Accessors

For each search option you allow, Searchlight defines two accessors: one for a value, and one for a boolean.

For example, if your class searches :awesomeness and gets instantiated like:

search = MySearchClass.new(awesomeness: 'Xtreme')

... your search methods can use:

  • awesomeness to retrive the given value, 'Xtreme'
  • awesomeness? to get a boolean version: true

The boolean conversion is form-friendly, so that 0, '0', and 'false' are considered false.

All accessors are defined in modules, so you can override them and use super to call the original methods.

class PersonSearch < Searchlight::Search

  searches :names, :awesomeness

  def names
    # Make sure this is an array and never search for Jimmy.
    # Jimmy is a private man. An old-fashioned man. Leave him be.
    Array(super).reject { |name| name == 'Jimmy' }
  end

  def searches_names
    search.where("name IN (?)", names)
  end

  def awesomeness?
    # Disagree about what is awesome
    !super
  end

end

Additionally, each search instance has an options accessor, which will have all the usable options with which it was instantiated. This excludes empty collections, blank strings, nil, etc. These usable options will be used in determining which search methods to run.

Defining Defaults

Set defaults using plain Ruby. These can be used to prefill a form or to assume what the user didn't specify.

class CitySearch < Searchlight::Search

  #...

  def initialize(options = {})
    super    
    self.continent ||= 'Asia'
  end

  #...
end

CitySearch.new.results.to_sql
  => "SELECT `cities`.* FROM `cities`  WHERE (`countries`.`continent` = 'Asia')"
CitySearch.new(continent: 'Europe').results.to_sql
  => "SELECT `cities`.* FROM `cities`  WHERE (`countries`.`continent` = 'Europe')"

You can define defaults for boolean attributes if you treat them as "yes/no/either" choices.

class AnimalSearch < Searchlight::Search

  search_on Animal
  
  searches :is_fictional
  
  def initialize(*args)
    super
    self.is_fictional = :either if is_fictional.blank?
  end
  
  def search_is_fictional
    case is_fictional.to_s
    when 'true'   then search.where(fictional: true)
    when 'false'  then search.where(fictional: false)
    when 'either' then search # unmodified
    end
  end
end


AnimalSearch.new(fictional: true).results.to_sql
  => "SELECT `animals`.* FROM `animals` WHERE (`fictional` = true)"
AnimalSearch.new(fictional: false).results.to_sql
  => "SELECT `animals`.* FROM `animals` WHERE (`fictional` = false)"
AnimalSearch.new.results.to_sql
  => "SELECT `animals`.* FROM `animals`"

Subclassing

You can subclass an existing search class and support all the same options with a different search target. This may be useful for single table inheritance, for example.

class VillageSearch < CitySearch
  search_on Village
end

You can also use search_target to get the superclass's search_on value, so you can do this:

class SmallTownSearch < CitySearch
  search_on search_target.where("`cities`.`population` < ?", 1_000)
end

SmallTownSearch.new(country_name_like: 'Norfolk').results.to_sql
  => "SELECT `cities`.* FROM `cities`  WHERE (`cities`.`population` < 1000) AND (`countries`.`name` LIKE '%Norfolk%')"

Dependent Options

To allow search options that don't trigger searches directly, just use attr_accessor.

Usage in Rails

Forms

Searchlight plays nicely with Rails forms. All search options and any attr_accessors you define can be hooked up to form fields.

# app/views/cities/index.html.haml
...
= form_for(@search, url: search_cities_path) do |f|
  %fieldset
    = f.label      :name, "Name"
    = f.text_field :name

  %fieldset
    = f.label      :country_name_like, "Country Name Like"
    = f.text_field :country_name_like

  %fieldset
    = f.label  :is_megacity, "Megacity?"
    = f.select :is_megacity, [['Yes', true], ['No', false], ['Either', '']]

  %fieldset
    = f.label  :continent, "Continent"
    = f.select :continent, ['Africa', 'Asia', 'Europe'], include_blank: true

  = f.submit "Search"
  
- @results.each do |city|
  = render 'city'

Controllers

As long as your form submits options your search understands, you can easily hook it up in your controller:

# app/controllers/orders_controller.rb
class OrdersController < ApplicationController

  def index
    @search  = OrderSearch.new(search_params) # For use in a form
    @results = @search.results                # For display along with form
  end
  
  protected
  
  def search_params
    # Ensure the user can only browse or search their own orders
    (params[:search]) || {}).merge(user_id: current_user.id)
  end
end

Adapters

Currently, Searchlight has adapters for ActiveRecord, ActionView, and Mongoid. We'd love to get pull requests for others. :)

ActiveRecord and Mongoid

When you call search_on in your Searchlight class, Searchlight checks whether the search target comes from ActiveRecord or Mongoid, and, if so, mixes a module into your class.

For each of your search options, the module will have the simplest possible search method defined. For example, if your class searches :name, the ActiveRecord module will have this method:

  def search_name
    search.where(name: name)
  end

Since that method is in a parent module, you can easily override it by defining your own method. You can also call super in the method you define.

ActionView

Similarly, Searchlight adds ActionView-friendly methods to your classes if it sees that ActionView is a defined constant. See the code for details, but the upshot is that you can use a search with form_for.

Compatibility

For any given version, check .travis.yml to see what Ruby versions we're testing for compatibility.

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'searchlight'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install searchlight

Contributing

  1. Fork it
  2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
  3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
  4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
  5. Create new Pull Request

Shout Outs

  • The excellent Mr. Adam Hunter, co-creator of Searchlight.
  • TMA for supporting the development of Searchlight.