Ransack search not working if there is 'space' in search term

Question

I am using ransack for search in my rails 3.2 application using postgres as database.

I have a Invoice model and every invoice belongs_to a buyer. Below is my search form in index page.

views/invoices/index.html.erb

<%= search_form_for @search do |f| %>
  <%= f.text_field :buyer_name_cont %>
  <%= f.submit "Search"%>
<% end %>

And here is my controller code.

controllers/invoices_controller.rb

  def index
    @search = Invoice.search(params[:q])
    @invoices=@search.result(:distinct => true).paginate(:page => params[:page], :per_page => GlobalConstants::PER_PAGE )

    respond_to do |format|
      format.html # index.html.erb
      format.json { render json: @invoices }
    end
  end

Let's say a invoice is there of a buyer having name "Bat Man".

If I search "Bat", I get the invoice in results. Again if I search "Man", I get the invoice in results. But if I search "Bat Man", I don't get the invoice in results.

I know it might be something trivial but I am not able to resolve.

Update

When I tried the sql query formed directly in database using pgAdmin, I realized that in database there were multiple spaces in the buyer name, something like "Bat.space.space.space.Man".

Can something be done so that "Bat.space.Man" search also finds "Bat.space.space.space.Man" in results?

Answer 1

You could sanitize your data. For instance with regexp_replace(). Run in the database once:

UPDATE invoice
SET    buyer = regexp_replace(buyer, '\s\s+', ' ', 'g')
WHERE  buyer <> regexp_replace(buyer, '\s\s+', ' ', 'g');

And sanitize new inserts & updates likewise.

\s .. class shorthand for "white space" (including tab or weird spaces).
The 4th parameter 'g' is for "globally", needed to replace all instances, not just the first.

Answer 2

Ransack not support cont search for multi terms, I solved the requirement my customized way. the details as following:

Add scope to your model:

scope :like_search, ->(column, value) {
  keywords = value.to_s.split.map{ |k| "%#{k}%" }
  where(Array.new(keywords.size, "#{column} ILIKE ?").join(' AND '), *keywords)
}

in your view. instead of using f.text_field :buyer_name_cont provided by ransack, use normal field helper text_field_tag :buyer_name, params[:buyer_name]

then restrict your ransack in scope:

scope = Invoice.like_search(:name , params[:buyer_name])
@q = scope.ransack(params[:q])