Ruby Forum Ferret > acts_as_ferret and associations

I have the following models:

    class Book < ActiveRecord::Base
      acts_as_ferret
      belongs_to :author
    end

    class Author < ActiveRecord::Base
        has_many :books
    end

and in the controller:

  def search
    if params[:query]
      @query = params[:query]
      @total, @books = Book.full_text_search(@query, :page => 
(params[:page]||1))
      @pages = pages_for(@total)
    else
      @books = []
    end
  end

I can use the acts_as_ferret plugin to search for a book by title but it 
isn't picking up the authors through the association. So I can't do a 
search for books by author.

I've a feeling I've left some config out here. Can anyone help me out?

Hi Matthew

I'm fairly new to AAF as well, but I think if you read through this: 
http://projects.jkraemer.net/acts_as_ferret/rdoc/classes/FerretMixin/Acts/ARFerret/ClassMethods.html#M000006 
it might help you. I think essentially it boils down to the fact that 
attributes are indexed by default but associations are not, so you might 
have to pass some options in your call to acts_as_ferret.

Pete.

To clarify, say your Author class has the fields, 'first_name' and 
'surname'. To have these indexed by the Book class you would need to do 
some things:

1) Create methods in Book.rb to access these fields:

  def author_first_name
    return author.first_name
  end

  def author_surname
    return author_surname
  end

2) Pass these fields as options to the call to acts_as_ferret:

  class Book < ActiveRecord::Base
    acts_as_ferret :additional_fields => ['author_first_name', 
'author_surname']
    belongs_to :author
  end

I'm not sure it there's a more elegant solution, but that should do the 
trick.

Pete.

Thanks Pete. I'll give this a go.

Do you mean:

>   def author_surname
>     return author.surname
>   end

and not:

>   def author_surname
>     return author_surname
>   end

M.

On Tue, Nov 07, 2006 at 12:08:10AM +0100, Pete Royle wrote:
[..]
> 1) Create methods in Book.rb to access these fields:
[..]
> 2) Pass these fields as options to the call to acts_as_ferret:
> 
>   class Book < ActiveRecord::Base
>     acts_as_ferret :additional_fields => ['author_first_name', 
> 'author_surname']
>     belongs_to :author
>   end
> 
> I'm not sure it there's a more elegant solution, but that should do the 
> trick.

that's exactly what I would have suggested, but please use symbols for
field names in your call to acts_as_ferret.

cheers,
Jens


--
webit! Gesellschaft für neue Medien mbH          www.webit.de
Dipl.-Wirtschaftsingenieur Jens Krämer       kraemer@webit.de
Schnorrstraße 76                         Tel +49 351 46766  0
D-01069 Dresden                          Fax +49 351 46766 66

Jens Kraemer wrote:

> that's exactly what I would have suggested, but please use symbols for
> field names in your call to acts_as_ferret.

So:

class Book < ActiveRecord::Base
  acts_as_ferret :additional_fields => [:author_first_name, 
:author_surname]
  belongs_to :author

  def author_first_name
    return author.first_name
  end

  def author_surname
    return author.surname
  end

end

?

Matthew Planchant wrote:


> class Book < ActiveRecord::Base
>   acts_as_ferret :additional_fields => [:author_first_name, 
> :author_surname]
>   belongs_to :author
> 
>   def author_first_name
>     return author.first_name
>   end
> 
>   def author_surname
>     return author.surname
>   end
> end

This works. Thanks.

Will this work with many-to-many relationships?

For example:

class Book < ActiveRecord::Base
  acts_as_ferret :additional_fields => [:topic_title]

  has_many :book_topics, :dependent => true
  has_many :topics, :through => :book_topics

  def topic_title
    return topic.title
  end

end

On Tue, Nov 07, 2006 at 11:35:38AM +0100, Matthew Planchant wrote:
>   def topic_title
>     return topic.title
>   end

this won't work, as there is no method 'topic' in your Book class.
But you could index the titles of all topics:

acts_as_ferret :additional_fields => [:topic_titles]
def topic_titles
  topics.collect { |topic| topic.title }.join ' '
end

Jens


--
webit! Gesellschaft für neue Medien mbH          www.webit.de
Dipl.-Wirtschaftsingenieur Jens Krämer       kraemer@webit.de
Schnorrstraße 76                         Tel +49 351 46766  0
D-01069 Dresden                          Fax +49 351 46766 66

Jens Kraemer wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 07, 2006 at 11:35:38AM +0100, Matthew Planchant wrote:
>>   def topic_title
>>     return topic.title
>>   end
> 
> this won't work, as there is no method 'topic' in your Book class.
> But you could index the titles of all topics:
> 
> acts_as_ferret :additional_fields => [:topic_titles]
> def topic_titles
>   topics.collect { |topic| topic.title }.join ' '
> end

Thanks. I'll give this a shot.

Hi there, I have a similar problem. I'm building a CMS and we have a 
tree model called component_instances. This model has polymorphic 
associations with many other models (e.g. Links, Folders, Pages etc...) 
I want the user to be able to search for an instance using data stored 
in the associated models. To start with in the backend interface, I only 
want them to be able to search for items by name, so I came up with 
this:

class ComponentInstance < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :permissions
  has_many :groups, :through => :permissions
  belongs_to :component #will be in different database ??
  acts_as_tree :order => 'position'
  acts_as_list :scope => 'parent_id'
  belongs_to :instance, :polymorphic => true
  acts_as_ferret(
    :fields => :instance_name
  )

  def instance_name
    instance.name
  end

end

Now that looks like it should work. But when I search for an item by 
name (knowing that it exists), nothing shows. I know the search itself 
works because becure I added the :fields condition, it would pick up and 
return results for the word "folder" as it was used to define the 
polymorphic associations on the instances table.

So firstly your help with that problem would be most appreciated. Then 
we make things trickier by adding the fact that I'd like the end users 
on the front end to be able to search the site not just using the name 
field, but basically anything in any of the instance tables.

As a laughing point, when I wrote the original application in PHP using 
Mysql fulltext search, the query for the frontend search was 2 pages 
long! :)

Looking forward to your great ideas! :)

Hi!

On Thu, Nov 16, 2006 at 07:04:55AM +0100, Brendon Muir wrote:
[..]
> Now that looks like it should work. But when I search for an item by 
> name (knowing that it exists), nothing shows. I know the search itself 
> works because becure I added the :fields condition, it would pick up and 
> return results for the word "folder" as it was used to define the 
> polymorphic associations on the instances table.

have a look in your development log when you save an instance of class
ComponentInstance. There should be a line like
'adding field instance_name with value ...'
showing what value aaf indexed for your instance name.

Maybe the instance isn't there yet when the save takes place ?

> So firstly your help with that problem would be most appreciated. Then 
> we make things trickier by adding the fact that I'd like the end users 
> on the front end to be able to search the site not just using the name 
> field, but basically anything in any of the instance tables.

that's easy, just index all the fields you want for frontend and backend
search (including the instance_name field) and use a special QueryParser
restricted to only the instance_name field for your backend search:

QueryParser qp = QueryParser.new(:fields => [:instance_name])
ComponentInstance.find_by_contents(qp.parse user_query)

with this solution, backend users could still manually construct
complex queries to search other fields, but queries not using any field
names will default to only search the instance_name field.

> As a laughing point, when I wrote the original application in PHP using 
> Mysql fulltext search, the query for the frontend search was 2 pages 
> long! :)

dont tell me any details ;-)

cheers,
Jens


--
webit! Gesellschaft für neue Medien mbH          www.webit.de
Dipl.-Wirtschaftsingenieur Jens Krämer       kraemer@webit.de
Schnorrstraße 76                         Tel +49 351 46766  0
D-01069 Dresden                          Fax +49 351 46766 66

Jens Kraemer wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> On Thu, Nov 16, 2006 at 07:04:55AM +0100, Brendon Muir wrote:
> [..]
>> Now that looks like it should work. But when I search for an item by 
>> name (knowing that it exists), nothing shows. I know the search itself 
>> works because becure I added the :fields condition, it would pick up and 
>> return results for the word "folder" as it was used to define the 
>> polymorphic associations on the instances table.
> 
> have a look in your development log when you save an instance of class
> ComponentInstance. There should be a line like
> 'adding field instance_name with value ...'
> showing what value aaf indexed for your instance name.
> 
> Maybe the instance isn't there yet when the save takes place ?
> 

I already had a few records in the database so I assumed when i added 
the ferrit aa that it would index those. I will try adding a new record 
and see what it says when i get back to work on Monday. :)

>> So firstly your help with that problem would be most appreciated. Then 
>> we make things trickier by adding the fact that I'd like the end users 
>> on the front end to be able to search the site not just using the name 
>> field, but basically anything in any of the instance tables.
> 
> that's easy, just index all the fields you want for frontend and backend
> search (including the instance_name field) and use a special QueryParser
> restricted to only the instance_name field for your backend search:
> 
> QueryParser qp = QueryParser.new(:fields => [:instance_name])
> ComponentInstance.find_by_contents(qp.parse user_query)
> 
> with this solution, backend users could still manually construct
> complex queries to search other fields, but queries not using any field
> names will default to only search the instance_name field.
> 

Excellent! Sounds like a good solution. Will this mean I will have to do 
a while bunch of these type of accessor's in my model. One for each 
field in my seperate polymorphic instances?

def instance_linkurl
    instance.linkurl
end

etc...

Will that break when ferret trys to trawl a polymorphic model that 
doesn't have a linkurl attribute?

>> As a laughing point, when I wrote the original application in PHP using 
>> Mysql fulltext search, the query for the frontend search was 2 pages 
>> long! :)
> 
> dont tell me any details ;-)
> 
> cheers,
> Jens
> 
> 
> --
> webit! Gesellschaft f?e Medien mbH          www.webit.de
> Dipl.-Wirtschaftsingenieur Jens Krä­¥r       kraemer@webit.de
> Schnorrstraߥ 76                         Tel +49 351 46766  0
> D-01069 Dresden                          Fax +49 351 46766 66

On Fri, Nov 17, 2006 at 03:20:43AM +0100, Brendon Muir wrote:
> Jens Kraemer wrote:
[..]
> > ComponentInstance.find_by_contents(qp.parse user_query)
> def instance_linkurl
>     instance.linkurl
> end
> 
> etc...

that depends on what you want to do. If you want fine grained searches
on single fields like linkurl or name then yes, you'll have to have
these accessors. but with ruby you can easily declare them in a
programmatic way, i.e loop over the attributes of instance and ue
define_method inside the loop...

if you don't need that many fields for querying you also can aggregate
the values of your instance attributes to a single string and index
that instead.

> Will that break when ferret trys to trawl a polymorphic model that 
> doesn't have a linkurl attribute?

it probably will, you'll have to check if the object has this method and
return '' if it doesn't.

Jens

--
webit! Gesellschaft für neue Medien mbH          www.webit.de
Dipl.-Wirtschaftsingenieur Jens Krämer       kraemer@webit.de
Schnorrstraße 76                         Tel +49 351 46766  0
D-01069 Dresden                          Fax +49 351 46766 66

Thanks for all your help above :)

Coming back to the original query (now that I'm back at work to try it), 
when I create a "component instance" i get the following in the logs:

Processing FolderController#new (for 127.0.0.1 at 2006-11-21 10:23:29) 
[POST]
  Session ID: e3154e167b8382c5050468c261bd0ead
  Parameters: {"commit"=>"Add", "folder"=>{"name"=>"cool folder"}, 
"action"=>"new", "controller"=>"admin/construction/folder", 
"parent_id"=>"12"}
  Folder Columns (0.016000)   SHOW FIELDS FROM 
folders
  SQL (0.000000)   BEGIN
  SQL (0.046000)   INSERT INTO folders (`name`) 
VALUES('cool folder')
  SQL (0.094000)   COMMIT
  ComponentInstance Columns (0.016000)   SHOW FIELDS 
FROM component_instances
  Component Load (0.015000)   SELECT * FROM components 
WHERE (technical_name = 'folder') LIMIT 1
  Component Columns (0.000000)   SHOW FIELDS FROM 
components
  SQL (0.000000)   BEGIN
  ComponentInstance Load (0.000000)   SELECT * FROM 
component_instances WHERE (parent_id) ORDER BY position DESC LIMIT 1
  SQL (0.032000)   INSERT INTO component_instances 
(`deleted_root_item`, `instance_type`, `deleted_on`, `enabled`, 
`instance_id`, `component_id`, `parent_id`, `position`) VALUES(NULL, 
'Folder', NULL, 1, 4, 2, 12, 5)
ferret_create/update: ComponentInstance : 20
creating doc for class: ComponentInstance, id: 20
  SQL (0.031000)   COMMIT
Redirected to 
http://localhost:3001/admin/construction/construction_zone/12
Completed in 1.01600 (0 reqs/sec) | DB: 0.25000 (24%) | 302 Found 
[http://localhost/admin/construction/folder/12/new]


The current model code is:

class ComponentInstance < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :permissions
  has_many :groups, :through => :permissions
  belongs_to :component #will be in different database ??
  acts_as_tree :order => 'position'
  acts_as_list :scope => 'parent_id'
  belongs_to :instance, :polymorphic => true
  acts_as_ferret(
    :fields => :instance_name
  )

  def instance_name
    instance.name
  end


-- And here is the controller method to make a new folder 
(component_instance)

  def new
    if request.post?
      @folder = Folder.new(params[:folder])
      success = @folder.save

      component_instance = ComponentInstance.new
      component_instance.enabled = 1; #ie True
      component_instance.instance = @folder
      component_instance.parent_id = params[:parent_id]
      component_instance.component = Component.find(:first, :conditions 
=>"technical_name = 'folder'")

      if success && component_instance.save
        flash[:notice] = 'A new folder was successfully added.'
        redirect_to :controller => 'construction_zone', :parent_id => 
params[:parent_id]
      else
        @folder.destroy if success #Make sure the link and 
component_instances tables are consistent
        flash[:fail] = 'There was an error when saving the folder'
      end
    else
      @folder = Folder.new
    end
  end




Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. :)

Brendon

Oh so, here's how to do it :)

  acts_as_ferret :fields => ['instance_name']

  def instance_name
    instance.name
  end


Seems to be the correct syntax :) Not sure why the symbol way didn't do 
it?

Cheers,

Brendon

On Mon, Nov 20, 2006 at 11:39:30PM +0100, Brendon Muir wrote:
> it?
imho it's not the symbol that was the problem, but the missing brackets
around it - in your original post you wrote

acts_as_ferret :fields => :instance_name

So
acts_as_ferret :fields => [ :instance_name ]
should work, too.

Jens

> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/ferret-talk
> 

--
webit! Gesellschaft für neue Medien mbH          www.webit.de
Dipl.-Wirtschaftsingenieur Jens Krämer       kraemer@webit.de
Schnorrstraße 76                         Tel +49 351 46766  0
D-01069 Dresden                          Fax +49 351 46766 66

Thanks guys,

The above seems to work for me perfectly except when i add a new not it 
doesnt update the index. if i delete and rebuild the index it works 
fine. can some one stear me in the right direction please i am guesing i 
have to add some metod to the create function in my notes_controller to 
update the index ???

Thanks, Adam

my code in contacts_controller:
-------------------
class Contact < ActiveRecord::Base
  validates_presence_of :First_Name
  validates_presence_of :Last_Name
  has_many :notes, :as => :notable

  acts_as_ferret :store_class_name => true, :lazy => true, :remote => 
false, :fields =>
  {

          :First_Name => { :store => :no, :boost => 2 },
          :Last_Name => { :store => :no, :boost => 1 },
          :description => { :store => :yes, :boost => 0.5 },
          :agent_id => { :store => :no, :boost => 0 },
          :note_note => { :store => :yes, :boost => 0 }

  }

  def note_note

      @index = Array.new
      for note in self.notes
        @index << note.note
      end
      return @index.join(" ")

  end

I think i answered my own question.
in the create method for my note i added
Contact.find(params[:id]).ferret_create()
hooha


Adam Jones wrote:
> Thanks guys,
> 
> The above seems to work for me perfectly except when i add a new not it 
> doesnt update the index. if i delete and rebuild the index it works 
> fine. can some one stear me in the right direction please i am guesing i 
> have to add some metod to the create function in my notes_controller to 
> update the index ???
> 

On Tue, Sep 18, 2007 at 06:10:38AM +0200, Adam Jones wrote:
> I think i answered my own question.
> in the create method for my note i added
> Contact.find(params[:id]).ferret_create()

right, however I'd stick that code in a NotesObserver...

Jens

> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
> _______________________________________________
> Ferret-talk mailing list
> Ferret-talk@rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/ferret-talk
> 

--
Jens Krämer
http://www.jkraemer.net/ - Blog
http://www.omdb.org/     - The new free film database

Hi all and thank you for the information about associations and AAF. I 
have a problem yet with the update of the index cause when a model is 
updated, AAF does not updte the upper model using it. Is there a whay to 
force the reindexing of a model?




Jens Kraemer wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 18, 2007 at 06:10:38AM +0200, Adam Jones wrote:
>> I think i answered my own question.
>> in the create method for my note i added
>> Contact.find(params[:id]).ferret_create()
> 
> right, however I'd stick that code in a NotesObserver...
> 
> Jens
> 
>> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
>> _______________________________________________
>> Ferret-talk mailing list
>> Ferret-talk@rubyforge.org
>> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/ferret-talk
>> 
> 
> --
> Jens Kr�mer
> http://www.jkraemer.net/ - Blog
> http://www.omdb.org/     - The new free film database

Donegarden,
I believe your question is like my last one.
All you have to do is find the item in the model and execute the 
ferret_create() method on it.
This is the same as an update.

Ie/



Widget.find(params[:id]).ferret_create()

As Jens suggested this would be best in an observer but it will also 
work in the controller after you have updated the model

Adam

Donegarden Dg wrote:
> Hi all and thank you for the information about associations and AAF. I 
> have a problem yet with the update of the index cause when a model is 
> updated, AAF does not updte the upper model using it. Is there a whay to 
> force the reindexing of a model?
> 
> 

Matthew Planchant wrote:
> Matthew Planchant wrote:
> 
> 
>> class Book < ActiveRecord::Base
>>   acts_as_ferret :additional_fields => [:author_first_name, 
>> :author_surname]
>>   belongs_to :author
>> 
>>   def author_first_name
>>     return author.first_name
>>   end
>> 
>>   def author_surname
>>     return author.surname
>>   end
>> end
> 
> This works. Thanks.

hi everyone!

i was following this thread and tried the above, as its exactly my 
problem as well:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
class User < ActiveRecord::Base

  acts_as_ferret :fields =>             [ :name, :lastname, :firstname, 
:focus, :degree, :location,
                                          :classof, :company, 
:company_desc, :website, :cellphone, :about ]

  acts_as_ferret :additional_fields =>  [:resume_company_name, 
:resume_kind, :resume_description ]

  ############

  def resume_company_name
    return resume.company_name
  end

  def resume_kind
    return resume.kind
  end

  def resume_description
    return resume.description
  end

  ############

  has_many                :resumes
-------------------------------------------------------
but when building the index, ferret always tells me the following:

------------------

Error retrieving value for field resume_company_name: undefined local 
variable or method `resume' for #<User:0x26e137c>
-------------------


any ideas?

I just quickly looked up the inflections to see if that was the problem. 
However your relationship is a has_many which therefore means, how does 
ferret know which one of the resumes you're talking about?

The original point of this thread was to do with models that had a 1-1 
polymorphic relationship so that you knew where to find the rest of the 
data. What you could do is index the resume's table which would also 
include their user_id by default, then do a conditional search on that 
user_id if you wanted to search amongst resume's. You can also add extra 
fields like user.name from the resume model because that's a 1-1 
relationship from the perspective of the single resume.

Hope that helps :)

Cheers,

Brendon


> hi everyone!
> 
> i was following this thread and tried the above, as its exactly my 
> problem as well:
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> class User < ActiveRecord::Base
> 
>   acts_as_ferret :fields =>             [ :name, :lastname, :firstname, 
> :focus, :degree, :location,
>                                           :classof, :company, 
> :company_desc, :website, :cellphone, :about ]
> 
>   acts_as_ferret :additional_fields =>  [:resume_company_name, 
> :resume_kind, :resume_description ]
> 
>   ############
> 
>   def resume_company_name
>     return resume.company_name
>   end
> 
>   def resume_kind
>     return resume.kind
>   end
> 
>   def resume_description
>     return resume.description
>   end
> 
>   ############
> 
>   has_many                :resumes
> -------------------------------------------------------
> but when building the index, ferret always tells me the following:
> 
> ------------------
> 
> Error retrieving value for field resume_company_name: undefined local 
> variable or method `resume' for #<User:0x26e137c>
> -------------------
> 
> 
> any ideas?

Brendon Muir wrote:
> I just quickly looked up the inflections to see if that was the problem. 
> However your relationship is a has_many which therefore means, how does 
> ferret know which one of the resumes you're talking about?
> 
> The original point of this thread was to do with models that had a 1-1 
> polymorphic relationship so that you knew where to find the rest of the 
> data. What you could do is index the resume's table which would also 
> include their user_id by default, then do a conditional search on that 
> user_id if you wanted to search amongst resume's. You can also add extra 
> fields like user.name from the resume model because that's a 1-1 
> relationship from the perspective of the single resume.
> 
> Hope that helps :)
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Brendon

dude thanks! solved the whole "problem" after a few hours and couldnt 
resist to blog about it:

http://blog.foosion.org/2008/01/28/acts_as_ferret-on-associations/

it's just exactly what you figured out!

greets Nils

Followed this thread and have a has_many_through association indexing 
fine. The only problem is the N+1 sql queries incurred with an index 
rebuild, full or partial.

Is there any way to enable eager loading on batch index updates?

Cheers,
Sam

Hi!

On Thu, Mar 13, 2008 at 05:01:26AM +0100, Sam Giffney wrote:
> Followed this thread and have a has_many_through association indexing 
> fine. The only problem is the N+1 sql queries incurred with an index 
> rebuild, full or partial.
> 
> Is there any way to enable eager loading on batch index updates?

Yes. Acts_as_ferret defines a class method named records_for_rebuild on
your model, which you may override to use a customized find call.

See lib/class_methods.rb for the original implementation.

Cheers,
Jens



--
Jens Krämer
http://www.jkraemer.net/ - Blog
http://www.omdb.org/     - The new free film database