how to shrink long search url in rails 3.2

Question

I have this search controller url:

http://localhost:3000/search/index?utf8=✓&search=Search_terms

how can trim this to:

http://localhost:3000/search=query

the search code:

#search-box
  #search-form
    = form_tag search_index_path, :method => 'get'  do
      = text_field_tag :search, params[:search], :autocomplete => "off"
      %button#search-button{:type => "submit"}
        %span Go!

Or is that possible??

Please advise.

Please visit http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11391686/reducing-url-length-in-rails/11391782#comment15020000_11391782 — Soundar Rathinasamy, Jul 09 '12 at 11:12

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 09 '12 at 11:24

2

This is not possible by Ruby (or Rails) itself. You need to

append a JavaScript callback to the submit event of the form
validate the form
replace the target URL of the form with the one composed by search= + input value.

Keep in mind that not all characters can be part of an URL. This is the reason why you should pass the search query as parameter, not as part of the URI.

answered Jul 09 '12 at 11:24

Simone Carletti

173,507
49
363
364

Yeah, it's complicated. I just leave that unchanged. – The questioner Jul 09 '12 at 12:35

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 09 '12 at 11:10

1

If you don't want to show the the params[search] on the URL, you should change the method from GET to POST in your form.

Read it: http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/forms/methods.html

or include your form code on the question...

answered Jul 09 '12 at 11:10

gabrielhilal

10,660
6
54
81

I do want to show `params[search]` , jsut don't want `search/index?utf8=✓&` – The questioner Jul 09 '12 at 11:18
If you change the method to post, no extra argument will be showed on the URL, and you can use the param[search] in your controller. – gabrielhilal Jul 09 '12 at 11:30
Which action is better?? POST or GET? in terms of stability, security and server load. – The questioner Jul 09 '12 at 12:30
your answer is here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/195212/what-are-the-advantages-of-using-a-get-request-over-a-post-request – gabrielhilal Jul 09 '12 at 13:12

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 09 '12 at 11:32

0

It's totally possible with (just) Rails.

Make sure the page you're submitting to is your root path

(in config/routes.rb)

root :to => "search#index"

Then just ensure your form is posting to root_path

Getting rid of the "snowman" is a little trickier. If you're sure that you won't have anyone submitting non-UTF8 characters then avoiding the form_tag helper and hand-coding your form (easy with such a short form) will get rid of it.

answered Jul 09 '12 at 11:32

mylescarrick

1,680
8
10

According to the original example, the user wants the query in the URL (and not as a param). This is **not** possible with (just) Rails. – Simone Carletti Jul 09 '12 at 11:36
It won't be as a named param. It's just going to be sent as key=value with all params requested on that page - hence the root_path has no additional `named` params (since it's the index method on a RESTful controller) – mylescarrick Jul 09 '12 at 11:41

how to shrink long search url in rails 3.2

3 Answers3