Layering navbar simple search with Ransack for further scoping - sql

Question

I have a search bar on my navigation header where users can search for the titles of articles. This will route them to the articles/browse.html.erb page where they can further scope the results down by categories and name of authors.
I have followed this tutorial to do the navbar search. I have attempted to use Ransack to allow further filtering on the browse page. However, i'm having diffculty combining the 2 search methods with the following issues:
1) The navbar search works fine and returns the correct results, but when i filter the results further again by category name, i get EDIT 0 results ALL the results.
2) When i do the initial search on the browse page itself with the article title, ransack works. However, Ransack doesn't seem to work when i further scope the results down by category/author name. (EDIT: ransack works for filter by category with the below edit in browse.html.erb, but not for author name)
browse.html.erb
<%= search_form_for #q, url: browse_articles_path, method: :get do |f| %>
<div class="form-group">
<div class = "row">
<div class="col-md-12 col-sm-12 col-xs-12">
<%= f.search_field :title_cont, placeholder: "Find Articles", class: "form-control" %>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="form-group">
<div class ="row">
<div class="col-md-6 col-sm-6 col-xs-6">
<%= f.select :categories_name_cont, options_from_collection_for_select(Category.all, //EDIT change "id" to// "name", "name", #q.categories_name_eq),
{ :prompt => "Any Category" },
{ class: "form-control" } %>
</div>
<div class="col-md-6 col-sm-6 col-xs-6">
<%= f.search_field :users_name_cont, class: "form-control", placeholder: "Author" %>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="form-group">
<%= f.submit class: 'btn btn-primary btn-md' %>
</div>
<% end %>
<% if params[:search] %>
<%= render #articles %>
<% elsif params[:q] %>
<%= render #articles_morefilter %>
<% else %>
<%= render #articles %>
<% end %>
articles_controller.rb
def browse
if params[:search]
#articles = Article.search(params[:search])
#categories = Category.joins(:articles).where('articles.title LIKE ?', "%#{params[:search]}%").uniq
else
#articles = Article.published.order("cached_votes_up DESC")
#categories = Category.with_articles.order('name ASC').all
end
#q = Article.ransack(params[:q])
#articles_morefilter = #q.result.includes(:categories, :users)
end
EDIT model: article.rb
class Article < ApplicationRecord
belongs_to :user
has_many :article_categories
has_many :categories, through: :article_categories
def self.search(search)
where('title LIKE ?', "%#{search}%")
end
end
routes.rb
resources :articles do
collection do
get 'browse'
end
end
schema:
create_table "articles", force: :cascade do |t|
t.string "title"
t.text "description"
t.bigint "user_id"
end
create_table "users", force: :cascade do |t|
t.string "name"
end
_navigation.html.erb
<%= form_tag(browse_articles_path, :method => 'get', :id => "articles_search") do %>
<div class="form-group">
<%= text_field_tag :search, params[:search], placeholder: "Search", class: "form-control" %>
</div>
<button type="submit" class="btn btn-default">Search</button>
<% end %>

Answer 1

you should be able to simply search all the fields with ransack. (based on current browse.html.erb)
def browse
#q = Article.ransack(params[:q])
#articles = #q.result.includes(:categories, :users)
end