Administrate Ransack

A plugin for Administrate to use Ransack for filtering resources.

Features:

• add Ransack search results using module prepend inside an Administrate controller;
• offer a filters partial based on the resource's attributes;
• customize searchable attributes.

• After installing Administrate, add to Gemfile: gem 'administrate_ransack' (and execute bundle)
• Edit your admin resource controller adding inside the class body:

prepend AdministrateRansack::Searchable

• Add to your resource index view (ex. to generate the index for a Post model: bin/rails generate administrate:views:index Post):

<%= render('administrate_ransack/filters') %>

• Update your model (ex. Post) exposing the ransackable attributes and associations, skipping this step will raise an exception that explains in details:

class Post < ApplicationRecord
  # ...

  class << self
    def ransackable_attributes(_auth_object = nil)
      %w[title description]
    end

    def ransackable_associations(_auth_object = nil)
      %w[author]
    end
  end
end

• See the Usage section for extra options

• The filters partial accepts some optional parameters:
  • attribute_labels: hash used to override the field labels, ex. { title: "The title" }
  • attribute_types: hash used to specify the filter fields, ex. { title: Administrate::Field::String }
  • search_path: the path to use for searching (form URL)
  • namespace: the namespace used by Administrate, ex. :supervisor
• For associations (has many/belongs to) the label used can be customized adding an admin_label method to the target model which returns a string while the collection can by filtered with admin_scope. Example:

# Sample post model
class Post < ApplicationRecord
  scope :admin_scope, -> { where(published: true) }

  def admin_label
    title.upcase
  end
end

• For has_many associations it is possible to use Selectize in place of the checkboxes using:

<!-- Set options for an association named: tags -->
<%= render('administrate_ransack/filters', options: { tags: 'select' } ) %>

• To use scopes in filters it's needed to update also the ransackable_scopes in the model, example:

# Sample post model
class Post < ApplicationRecord
  scope :recents, ->(dt = 1.month.ago) { where('dt > ?', dt).order(dt: :desc) }
  scope :by_category, ->(category) { where(category: category) }

  class << self
    def ransackable_scopes(_auth_object = nil)
      %i[by_category recents]
    end
  end
end

<!-- Sample index view -->
<%= render(
  'administrate_ransack/filters',
  attribute_types: { recents: Administrate::Field::DateTime, by_category: Administrate::Field::String }
) %>

• Administrate Search logic works independently from Ransack searches, I suggest to disable it eventually (ex. overriding show_search_bar? in the controller or removing the bar from the view)
• Date/time filters use Rails datetime_field method which produces a datetime-local input field, at the moment this type of element is not broadly supported, a workaround is to include flatpickr datetime library.
  • This gem checks if flatpickr function is available in the global scope and applies it to the datetime-local filter inputs;
  • you can include the library using your application assets or via CDN, ex. adding to app/views/layouts/admin/application.html.erb:

  <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/flatpickr@4.5.7/dist/flatpickr.min.css">
  <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/flatpickr@4.5.7/dist/flatpickr.min.js"></script>

  <script>
    // optionally change the flatpikr options:
    window.flatpickr_filters_options = { dateFormat: "Y-m-d" };
  </script>

• Ransack options can be customized defining a ransack_options method in the controller, example:

module Admin
  class PostsController < Admin::ApplicationController
    prepend AdministrateRansack::Searchable

    def ransack_options
      # raises an exception on unknown parameters
      { ignore_unknown_conditions: false }
    end
  end
end

• Sample call of the filters partial with different options provided:

<%
# In alternative prepare an hash in the dashboard like RANSACK_TYPES = {}
attribute_types = {
  title: Administrate::Field::String,
  author: Administrate::Field::BelongsTo,
  category: Administrate::Field::Select.with_options(collection: Post.categories.to_a),
  published: Administrate::Field::Boolean
}
attribute_labels = {
  author: 'Written by',
  title: nil
}
%>
<%= render(
  'administrate_ransack/filters',
  attribute_types: attribute_types,
  attribute_labels: attribute_labels,
  search_path: admin_root_path
) %>

• Another option is to prepare some hashes constants in the dashboard (ex. RANSACK_TYPES):

<%= render('administrate_ransack/filters', attribute_types: @dashboard.class::RANSACK_TYPES) %>

• Some basic style to setup the filters as a sidebar (see the screenshot below):

.main-content__body {
  display: inline-block;
  width: calc(100% - 320px);
  vertical-align: top;
}

[data-administrate-ransack-filters] {
  display: inline-block;
  padding-left: 10px;
  padding-top: 10px;
  width: 300px;
}

[data-administrate-ransack-filters] .filter {
  margin-bottom: 10px;
}

[data-administrate-ransack-filters] .filters-buttons {
  margin-top: 30px;
}

Screenshot:

• Alternative styles for an horizontal search bar:

[data-administrate-ransack-filters] {
  border: 1px solid #ddd;
  padding: 10px;
  text-align: center;
}

[data-administrate-ransack-filters] .filters {
  display: inline-block;
}

[data-administrate-ransack-filters] .filter, [data-administrate-ransack-filters] .filter > label {
  display: inline-block;
}

[data-administrate-ransack-filters] .filter > input {
  display: inline-block;
  width: auto;
}

[data-administrate-ransack-filters] .filters-buttons {
  display: inline-block;
  margin-left: 20px;
}

Screenshot:

• If you need to define custom search logics you can skip prepending the module (AdministrateRansack::Searchable) and create your own search query in a controller (but you need to assign the Ransack search object to @ransack_results for the filters partial), for example:

  def scoped_resource
    @ransack_results = super.ransack(params[:q])
    @ransack_results.result(distinct: true)
  end

• Sometimes it's easier to create a new Ransack field than overriding the search logic (there are a lot of good examples in the Ransack Wiki), example to search in a jsonb field adding to a Post model:

  ransacker :keywords do
    Arel.sql("posts.metadata ->> 'keywords'")
  end

• With Administrate Ransack you can easily create links to other resources applying some filters, example to add in a tag show page the link to the related posts:

  <%= link_to("Tag's posts", admin_posts_path('q[tags_id_in][]': page.resource.id), class: "button") %>

If you use this component just star it. A developer is more motivated to improve a project when there is some interest.

Or consider offering me a coffee, it's a small thing but it is greatly appreciated: about me.

• Mattia Roccoberton: author
• The good guys that opened issues and pull requests from time to time

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.