rails OR query based on multiple checkbox selections - ruby-on-rails-3

Question

This seems like it should be a common problem but I'm having trouble finding an answer. Basically I want to have a form with 10 or so checkboxes which I'm creating with check_box_tag. When the form is submitted I want to generate a query that return all records that match ANY of the checked selections. So, the number of checked selections will vary.
So, for example, if I have
class Book < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :author
end
I want to generate something like
Book.where("author_id = ? or author_id = ?", params[authors[0]], params[authors[1]]) if there are two boxes checked, etc.
Thanks for any insight.

Answer 1

Will this work for you?
Book.where(author_id: [array_of_author_ids])
You need to collect author_ids from params first

Answer 2

I recently had to do something similar, this is how I achieved this. It's pretty clever (at least I think so. :))
I created a query model that serializes the query column (text field) in JSON. I use a form to get the query data from the user with selection fields.
class BookQuery < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :books
# loop through each foreign key of the Book table and create a hash with empty selection
def self.empty_query
q = {}
Book.column_names.each do |column_name|
next unless column_name.ends_with?("_id")
q.merge column_name => []
end
end
end
I'm using Author as an example below:
<%= form_for #book_query do |f| %>
<% for author in Author.all %>
<%= check_box_tag "book_query[query][author_ids][]", author.id, false%>
<%= author.name %>
<% end %>
<%= f.submit "Save Query" %>
<% end %>
When this form is submitted you ended up with parameters like this:
When the form is submitted it generates this parameter:
Parameters: {"utf8"=>"✓", "authenticity_token"=>"XXXXXXXXXXX", "book_query"=>{"query"=>{"author_ids"=>["2", "3"]}}, "commit"=>"Save Query"}
Now in the BookQuery controller's create action you can just do what create function always does:
def create
#book_query = BookQuery.build(params[:book_query])
if #book_query.save
flash[:success] = "Book query successfully saved."
redirect_to ...
else
flash[:error] = "Failed to save book query."
render :new
end
end
But by default rails serializes the data in hash type:
1.9.3p194 :015 > pp BookQuery.find(9).query
BookQuery Load (0.7ms) SELECT "book_queries".* FROM "book_queries" WHERE "book_queries"."id" = $1 LIMIT 1 [["id", 9]]
"--- !ruby/hash:ActiveSupport::HashWithIndifferentAccess\nauthor_ids:\n- '2'\n- '3'\n"
=> "--- !ruby/hash:ActiveSupport::HashWithIndifferentAccess\nauthor_ids:\n- '2'\n- '3'\n"
In BookQuery model, add the following:
serialize :query, JSON
But rail would change the IDs to string:
1.9.3p194 :018 > query = JSON.parse(BookQuery.find(10).query)
BookQuery Load (0.5ms) SELECT "book_queries".* FROM "book_queries" WHERE "book_queries"."id" = $1 LIMIT 1 [["id", 10]]
=> {"author_ids"=>["2", "3"]}
1.9.3p194 :019 > query["author_ids"]
=> ["2", "3"]
What I did then is override the attribute accessors in BookQuery model:
The below has to be done because the hash returns strings, not ids in integer.
def query=(query)
query.each_pair do |k, v|
if query[k].first.present?
query[k].map!(&:to_i)
else
query.except!(k)
end
end
write_attribute(:query, query)
end
# just want to avoid getting nil query's
def query
read_attribute(:query) || {}
end
To find book with this query, you can simply add this function to your Book model:
def self.find_by_book_query(book_query, options = {})
options[:conditions] = book_query.query
find(:all, options)
end
Now you get a customizable query string based on the model definition Book and everything works like the Rails way. :)