Multi-model search best practices

Ruby Apps Ferret
1

Hi folks.

If I am indexing ModelA and ModelB and I want to search both of them,
I usually just pick one arbitrarily and use it for #multi_search.

Is there a slicker pattern, regarding from which model to invoke
#multi_search? Can it be invoked directly from the Ferret library?
Has anyone put together some sort of “dummy” search class?

Thanks for any ideas.

John

2

Hey…

If I am indexing ModelA and ModelB and I want to search both of them,
I usually just pick one arbitrarily and use it for #multi_search.

Is there a slicker pattern, regarding from which model to invoke
#multi_search? Can it be invoked directly from the Ferret library?
Has anyone put together some sort of “dummy” search class?

acts_as_ferret is storing one index per model. That is why you need
the multi_search method. However, Ferret does not need to store
separate indexes per model. acts_as_ferret is using a so-called
MultiSearcher, see

http://ferret.davebalmain.com/api/classes/Ferret/Search/MultiSearcher.html

to access several indexes at once to search them all. So yes, you
can use Ferrets own MultiSearcher to access all indexes you need
at once. However, acts_as_ferret may change the way the index is
stored in the future, so if you mix acts_as_ferret and ‘standard’ ferret
API calls, you might have a problem with future versions of AAF.

So if you don’t have a specific reason to use your own MultiSearcher,
you shouldn’t do it :slight_smile: What do you want to achieve?

Gruss
Ben

Benjamin K.

[email protected]

3

On Dec 27, 2007, at 5:34 PM, Benjamin K. wrote:

stored in the future, so if you mix acts_as_ferret and ‘standard’
ferret
API calls, you might have a problem with future versions of AAF.

Thanks Benjamin for your response.

So if you don’t have a specific reason to use your own MultiSearcher,
you shouldn’t do it :slight_smile: What do you want to achieve?

If I am using ferret/AAF to index Car, Boat, and Train, and I want to
perform a search on all those objects and get mixed results from all
of them simultaneously, the only way I know of to achieve this is to
pick one of the models – say, Car – and invoke Car.multi_search,
with appropriate flags to specify searching all models. This works
fine but is a bit sloppy since the method could have been called on
any of the models. I was wondering if there is an official or
unofficial way to avoid this.

Cheers,
John

4

On Dec 27, 2007, at 9:15 PM, John Joseph B. wrote:

So if you don’t have a specific reason to use your own MultiSearcher,
you shouldn’t do it :slight_smile: What do you want to achieve?

the only way I know of to achieve this is to pick one of the models
– say, Car – and invoke Car.multi_search, with appropriate flags
to specify searching all models. This works fine but is a bit sloppy
since the method could have been called on any of the models. I was
wondering if there is an official or unofficial way to avoid this.

To be clear-- I would like to do this via the AAF API if possible,
instead of directly via Ferret::Search::MultiSearcher.

Jon