Rails integration

Rails integration

(This page was contributed by Roger Braun)

If you only want a simple search for all the fields of your Model in your Rails app, you can use this technique. It is easy to extend to other use cases as well.

1. Add "picky" to your Gemfile

2. In the model you want to be indexed and searchable, add a search method and an after_save indexer.

   class Book < ActiveRecord::Base
     after_save :reindex
   
     def reindex
       BookIndex.replace self
     end
   
     # This returns an ActiveRecord relation, so you can still use
     # Kaminari for pagination or other scopes without hitting the
     # database.
     def self.search keys
       # TODO: Picky can not return all ids, so be sure to use a large 
       # value for the maximum amount that is returned.
       ids = (BookSearch.search keys, 1000000).ids
       Book.where("id in (?)", ids)
     end
   
   end

3. Add a config/initializers/picky.rb

   if Book.table_exists? then 
     BookIndex = Picky::Index.new :books do
       source Book.all
   
       # This will add all attributes to the index.
       Book.attribute_names[1..-1].each do |cname|
         category cname.to_sym
       end
     end
   
     BookSearch = Picky::Search.new BookIndex 
   
     begin
       # Try to load the index from cache.
       BookIndex.load
     rescue
       # Index on first boot or on database changes.
       BookIndex.index 
     end
   
     # Save the index program exit.
     at_exit { BookIndex.dump }
   end

4. That's it.