Del.icio.us-like output

Rails
1

I’m trying to build a page similar to a delicious page that is a listing
of
your bookmarks in this format:

  1. Querying serialized data in
    ActiveRecordhttp://www.karmiccoding.com/articles/2005/11/29/querying-serialized-data-in-activerecord
    Hack
    to search serialized fields
    to rails http://del.icio.us/djsodom/rails … and 4 other
    peoplehttp://del.icio.us/url/acd90e7ad2ec718ead225bc48d7c68dc… on
    2006-01-17 …
    edithttp://del.icio.us/djsodom?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.karmiccoding.com%2Farticles%2F2005%2F11%2F29%2Fquerying-serialized-data-in-activerecord&jump=no/
    deletehttp://del.icio.us/djsodom?delete=acd90e7ad2ec718ead225bc48d7c68dc&jump=no
  2. ProgrammableWeb: Web 2.0 API
    Referencehttp://programmableweb.com/apis Good
    listing of all the APIs
    to reference http://del.icio.us/djsodom/reference
    programminghttp://del.icio.us/djsodom/programming… and
    85 other
    peoplehttp://del.icio.us/url/76b171f78b8e4eb0851ae24a1994f105…
    on 2006-01-06 …
    edithttp://del.icio.us/djsodom?url=http%3A%2F%2Fprogrammableweb.com%2Fapis&jump=no/
    deletehttp://del.icio.us/djsodom?delete=76b171f78b8e4eb0851ae24a1994f105&jump=no

There are several things going on there that make it
hard/impossible/inefficient to do it one query. I’m soliciting tips on
how
to do this most efficiently.

For me, the data is in 4 tables.
Bookmarks (id, bookmark)
Tags (id, tag)
Tags_Bookmarks (tag_id, bookmark_id, user_id)
Users (id, username)

I have a query that can get me most of the info I need, but not
necessarily
in the format I need it in.

sql = “SELECT jt.tag_id, b.id bid, t.tag, b.bookmark, jt.created_on
FROM tags_bookmarks jt
LEFT JOIN tags t ON jt.tag_id = t.id
LEFT JOIN bookmarks b ON jt.bookmark_id = b.id
WHERE jt.user_id = #{uid}”
GROUP BY tag_id
ORDER BY #{sort}"

That returns data in this format:

tag_id, bid, tag, bookmark, created_on
2, 23, Tag1, This is a bookmark, 12/25/06
3, 23, Tag2, This is a bookmark, 12/26/06
7, 25, Tag5, Different bookmark, 12/26/05

Problem 1: If I print out those results using a collection, “This is a
bookmark” would be shown twice - once tagged with Tag1 and again tagged
with
Tag2. I want to list to look like:

  1. This is a bookmark

http://www.karmiccoding.com/articles/2005/11/29/querying-serialized-data-in-activerecordto
Tag1 http://del.icio.us/djsodom/rails Tag2 … and 4 other
peoplehttp://del.icio.us/url/acd90e7ad2ec718ead225bc48d7c68dc… on
12/25/06 …
edithttp://del.icio.us/djsodom?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.karmiccoding.com%2Farticles%2F2005%2F11%2F29%2Fquerying-serialized-data-in-activerecord&jump=no/
deletehttp://del.icio.us/djsodom?delete=acd90e7ad2ec718ead225bc48d7c68dc&jump=no

…where Tag1 and Tag2 are shown within one bookmark. What can I do to
get
those listed under 1 bookmark?

Problem 2: What’s the best way to get the “…and 4 other people” info?
The
one way I can think of is in my view, where I use a partial collection
to
print out each question, I call a helper function to count other users
also
bookmarking this url. For instance:

userBookmarks.rhtml

<div id="your_bookmarks">
      <%= render :partial => "bookmark", :collection => @bookmarks

%>

and then inside a partial _bookmark.rhtml:
<% otherUserCount =
call_to_helper_that_counts_other_users_also_bookmarking_this_url(
bookmark.bookmark_id)

         <h4 class="bookmarkList"><%= link_to(bookmark.bookmark,

:controller => “content”, :action => “bookmark”) %>
to <%= link_to(bookmark.tag)

If I list 20 questions, then that would mean 20 calls using the
call_to_helper… function. Is there a more efficient way?

Thanks very much for any suggestions.

Steve
http://www.smarkets.net

2

Hi Steve,

try to do it the railish way :wink:

first, get away from writing SQL by hand. Have a look at
act_as_taggable. With this plugin you can easily tag items in a table.
Then connect links and user via belongs_to and so in your model.

I have your delicous-like look with my links, and get this with

<h4><a href="<%= link.url %>"><%=h link.name %></a></h4>

<%= link.text %>

from <%= link.user.login %> in <% for tag in link.tag_names -%> <%= link_to tag, :action => 'tag', :id => tag %> <% end -%> (this is code in a partial)

In my controller I have no SQL:
@link_pages, @links = paginate :link, :per_page => 10, :order_by =>
‘created_on DESC’

HTH,
Beate

3

Hi Beate,

Thanks for your suggestions. I must admit sometimes I think it is easier
to
write the SQL by hand. You answered my question.

Steve
http://www.smarkets.net