how to implement the tags using acts_as_taggable_on_steroids

rubyonrails-talk
1

Here is the my application details:

work environment:windows instantrails2.0

1.i have created a controller and a model for 'aticle' and 'announcements'.

2.i added acts_as_taggable in both the models(i.e article.rb and announcement.rb)

3.i created a migration for tag support like add_tag_support.rb which contains the two tables ,names 'tags' and 'taggings'

class AddTagSupport < ActiveRecord::Migration   def self.up     # Table for your Tags     create_table :tags do |t|       t.column :name, :string     end

    create_table :taggings do |t|       t.column :tag_id, :integer       # id of tagged object       t.column :taggable_id, :integer       # type of object tagged       t.column :taggable_type, :string     end   end

  def self.down     drop_table :tags     drop_table :taggings   end

4.i created a migration for the two table article and announcements for tag support like:

class AddArticlesAddAnnouncements < ActiveRecord::Migration   def self.up     create_table :articles do |t|       t.column :name, :string       t.column :body, :string       t.column :created_on, :date       t.column :updated_on, :date     end     create_table :announcements do |t|       t.column :body, :string       t.column :created_on, :date       t.column :updated_on, :date     end   end

  def self.down     drop_table :articles     drop_table :announcements   end end

4.then i did rake db:migrate

5.if i login to http://localhost:3000/articles or http://localhost:3000/announcements

am able to enter the data into both tables

6 then i enter to console window

Artical.tag_with('xxxx')

if i do the above command im getting error like method is not defined

article = Article.find(1)

is working

article.tag_list

is giving empty array like =>

below are my quires:

1)can anyone help out me in this issue how to tag the tables and is there any changes do i need to change. 2)i try to instal steroids like: ruby script/plugin install http://svn.viney.net.nz/things/rails/plugins/acts_as_taggable_on_steroids its giving like no plugin found so i downloaded and just copied in to vendor/plugins/acts_as_taggable_on_steroids and started working .is it wrong? 3)where we need to do the changes in controller and views to search for perticular tag from the two models for user interface?

thanks

2

hi srikanth,

I just checked this against my implementation of the same plugin. As far as I can see, you did everything right. The plugin is loading, otherwise the acts_as_taggable in the model would give you an error.

Only difference: I used: @article.tag_list = "xxx" instead of tag_with, which doesn't exist in this plugin. (Not sure, I think it did exist in the old acts_as_taggable plugin, so you may find it in some tutorials)

3

hi Thorsten,

thanks for ur reply.

Yeah u r right.i have found that tag_with is not working .

suppose i want to find the data from articles and announcements using tag how can i do that.

article table is having fields: name:string body:string

announcements table having fields: body:

am able to enter the data from html page

now i want to check tag function so how can i do that . can u help n this where i need to chane in controller and views

thanks

4

We didn't use too much of the find functions, since we used sphinx full text search on the database and just included the tags in the sphinx index.

the basic function to get articles with given tags:

@article = Article.find_tagged_with("something")

This takes a few options: Pass either a tag, string, or an array of strings or tags. :exclude - Find models that are not tagged with the given tags :match_all - Find models that match all of the given tags, not just one :conditions - A piece of SQL conditions to add to the query

5

hi,

that commond is working on console,but i want give the tag name from html and it should take the tag paramaer and able to list out the tags which r linking to article and announcements.For this w need to update the controller of article and announcements and at the same time we need to update the views like index.html.erb,show.html.erb,new.html.erb,edit.html.erb files .

so here im getting stuck : 1)how to give the tag input from the html file (it works like search for all the taggables items from database) 2)where exatly i need to change the controller and views

if u have any idea any sample application let me know

thanks

6

On the first view you will need a form to enter the search like:

<% form_tag(search_articles_path(), :method => :get) do %>   <%= label(:search, :tag, "Search:") %><br />   <input name="search" id="tag" type="text" size="17" value='<%= session[:search_keys] %>' style="width:123px;" />   <input type="image" id="bt_zoek" src="/images/search.jpg" alt="search" style="border:none;"/> <% end %>

this would give the search in params[:search]

depending on some details, you can use this directly like @articles = Article.find_tagged_with(params[:search])

But there are many ways to do this and much depends on details, what exactly to search and display. Some Ajax response may be another option. But can't help you there, since that would require more knowledge about the needs and actual state of your site.

7

hi,

from the above code, what i understud is search is a method and it shold be defined in the controller right like def search @articles = Article.find_tagged_with(params[:search]) end or how it will be exactly can u help me regarding this

thanks . and to enter tag as search parameter on first form we should have some text box to enter right.how to do it.

8

hi ,

sorry for disturbing u .

can u explain wat that code u have given will do, i added that coode in index.html.erb but im gettin unintialized method error:it is expected because the method i did not added in controller so can u give dea where can i modify the code search_articles_path(),

thanks

9

search_articles_path would be generated by RESTful routing like (in routes.rb):

map.resources :articles, :colection => [:search]

but you can use any other path helper instead or a string with the url

10

hi thanks for that

in code snippet : <% form_tag(search_articles_path(), :method => :get) do %> <%= label(:search, :tag, "Search:") %><br /> <input name="search" id="tag" type="text" size="17" value='<%= session[:search_keys] %>' style="width:123px;" /> <input type="image" id="bt_zoek" src="/images/search.jpg" alt="search" style="border:none;"/> <% end %

my quieries: 1):method => :get the above method shoud be defined in controller right. 2)above code shoud take tag parameter right so from where it is getting the tag parameter to search the database?

can u clarify this.

thank u very much

11

1):method => :get the above method shoud be defined in controller right.

no, the :method => :get relates to form methods in html, nothing to do with methods in Rails if you defined the routes like map.resources :articles, :collection => [:search] and use the path helper search_articles_path, then the method must be in controler: Articles method: search

2)above code shoud take tag parameter right so from where it is getting the tag parameter to search the database?

the text entered by the user in the form will be in params[:search]

12

hi,

You mean to say i need to add

1)map.resources :articles, :collection => [:search] in route.rb

2)do i need to add method in controller like

def get

13

You mean to say i need to add 1)map.resources :articles, :collection => [:search] in route.rb

yes

2)do i need to add method in controller like

def get ----- end

no, it should be: def search ... end

the :collection => [:search] declares the existence of this search method in the articles controller

3)Can we give the tag parameter as text box entry from the forms(index.html.erb) and that tag parameter can be searched in the database?

yes, if you have a textbox named "search", then params[:search] will have the text entered in this box. You can give it any other name of course, params will have the value with the same name. (You can see what params are returned in the development.log)

To use this for searching: @articles = Article.find_tagged_with(params[:search])

then you should have all artcles with that tag in @articles and can display them in the view

14

Hi Thorsten,

really very helpful ur ideas to me as i am very new to rails and sql.

I HAVE UPDATED MY APPLICATION LIKE BELOW as per ur suggetions:

1)I added this search :map.resources :articles, :collection => [:search] in route.rb like below

map.connect ':controller/:action/:id'   map.connect ':controller/:action/:id.:format'   #added for search   map.resources :articles, :collection => [:search] end 2)i defined a search method in article controller like below:

def search @articles = Article.find_tagged_with(params[:search]) end

3)i added the below code in idex.html.erb as u said and added a commond to get a search box for tag entry.

Search: <input type="text" id="search_form" name="search" />

<% form_tag(search_articles_path(), :method => :get) do %> <%= label(:search, :tag, "Search:") %><br /> <input name="search" id="tag" type="text" size="17" value='<%= session[:search_keys] %>' style="width:123px;" /> <input type="image" id="bt_zoek" src="/images/search.jpg" alt="search" style="border:none;"/> <% end %>

then i trid http://localhost:3000/articles

i am able to see on index page like below list:

Listing articles Name Body Cricket india vs pak tour Show Edit Destroy politics HM quits Show Edit Destroy

New article

Search:

from the index page i am able to do show,edit,destory and new article functionalities and i am getting the search box to enter a tag name.

then my quiries: 1)if i enter some tag name then i press the search button i m getting erors like:

ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound in ArticlesController#show Couldn't find Article with ID=search RAILS_ROOT: E:/srikanth/InstantRails-2.0-win/rails_apps/blog RequestParameters: {"search"=>"fun", "x"=>"48", "y"=>"18", "id"=>"search"}

2)if the search isable to do searching then the reasult shoud be list out on index rt.so for this do we need update in any one of views(to get the results) can u tell me which view i ned to modify and how ?

3)small doubt:

i have a table like contacts with columns like:

id name age location 1 a 12 ap 2 b 13 ap 3 c 12 up

corresponding tag table like: id name 1 xx 2 yy 3 zz

here my douts are 1)the tag name shoud be one of the parameter like name or age or place or it should be the entry name of perticuler column? here actaully i given tag name as fun and serious as tag names but we did not mention any relation table contents of article ,even if i do article.find_taggable_with('fun') it is giving the details of teble entrys.i did not understand the logic here can u help in this?

thanks Srikanth 2)suppose i want to find all people from place ap i want to search ,how can i do that? 3)how the taging table is updating with all the above columns in the tagging table?

tagging table like: id tid taggable_id taggable_type

15

hi thorsten

on console i have tried below commonds:

Article.find(1)

working fine

article.tag_list

giving error like unfdefined local variable or method article But if i check the tas table from mysql prompt i am able to see the tag names like xx,yy....

i tried to give the tag names like

article.tag_list = "fun serious "

here also giving the same error but i trie yester in the same way it showned like ["fun","serious"]

can u tell me how togive the tag name on console without using article.tag_with method because this method not working.

thanks

16

hi thorsten, actually i got stuck here itself i am waiting for ur reply if you could do that its very help ful to me

thanks

17

hi thorsten

on console i have tried below commonds:

Article.find(1)

working fine

article.tag_list

giving error like unfdefined local variable or method article

Well yes - you haven't defined article. if you do article = Article.find(1) then you should be able to play around with article.tag_list etc...

Fred

18

Hi

i am clear abot that but if i write below

article_tag_with('tagname')

undefined methos article how can i do this? thanks

19

Hi

i am clear abot that but if i write below

article_tag_with('tagname')

undefined methos article how can i do this? thanks

Well that's the same thing. you've got to set article to be an
instance of article before you can call article.tag_with 'foo'

Fred