Meilisearch Rails

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⚡ The Meilisearch integration for Ruby on Rails 💎

Meilisearch Rails is the Meilisearch integration for Ruby on Rails developers.

Meilisearch is an open-source search engine. Learn more about Meilisearch.

📖 Documentation

The whole usage of this gem is detailed in this README.

To learn more about Meilisearch, check out our Documentation or our API References.

🤖 Compatibility with Meilisearch

This package guarantees compatibility with version v1.x of Meilisearch, but some features may not be present. Please check the issues for more info.

🔧 Installation

This package requires Ruby version 2.6.0 or later and Rails 5.2 or later.

With gem in command line:

gem install meilisearch-rails

In your Gemfile with bundler:

source 'https://rubygems.org'

gem 'meilisearch-rails'

Run Meilisearch

There are many easy ways to download and run a Meilisearch instance.

For example, if you use Docker:

docker pull getmeili/meilisearch:latest # Fetch the latest version of Meilisearch image from Docker Hub
docker run -it --rm -p 7700:7700 getmeili/meilisearch:latest meilisearch --master-key=masterKey

NB: you can also download Meilisearch from Homebrew or APT.

🚀 Getting started

Configuration

Create a new file config/initializers/meilisearch.rb to setup your MEILISEARCH_HOST and MEILISEARCH_API_KEY

MeiliSearch::Rails.configuration = {
  meilisearch_url: 'YourMeilisearchUrl', # example: http://localhost:7700
  meilisearch_api_key: 'YourMeilisearchAPIKey',
}

The gem is compatible with ActiveRecord, Mongoid and Sequel.

⚠️ Note that even if you want to use all the default options, you must declare an empty meilisearch block in your model.

Add documents

The following code will create a Book index and add search capabilities to your Book model.

class Book < ActiveRecord::Base
  include MeiliSearch::Rails

  meilisearch do
    attribute :title, :author # only the attributes 'title', and 'author' will be sent to Meilisearch
    # all attributes will be sent to Meilisearch if block is left empty
  end
end

Automatic indexing

As soon as you configure your model as mentioned above, meilisearch-rails will keep your database table data in sync with your Meilisearch instance using the ActiveRecord callbacks automatically.

Basic Backend Search

We strongly recommend the use of front-end search through our JavaScript API Client or Instant Meilisearch plugin

Search returns ORM-compliant objects reloaded from your database.

# Meilisearch is typo-tolerant:
hits = Book.search('harry pottre')
hits.each do |hit|
  puts hit.title
  puts hit.author
end

Extra Configuration

Requests made to Meilisearch may timeout and retry. To adapt the behavior to your needs, you can change the parameters during configuration:

MeiliSearch::Rails.configuration = {
  meilisearch_url: 'YourMeilisearchUrl',
  meilisearch_api_key: 'YourMeilisearchAPIKey',
  timeout: 2,
  max_retries: 1,
}

Compatibility

If your model already has methods that meilisearch-rails defines such as search and index, they will not be redefined. You can target the meilisearch-rails-defined methods by prefixing with ms_, e.g. Book.ms_search('harry potter').

⚙️ Settings

You can configure the index settings by adding them inside the meilisearch block as shown below:

class Book < ApplicationRecord
  include MeiliSearch::Rails

  meilisearch do
    searchable_attributes [:title, :author, :publisher, :description]
    filterable_attributes [:genre]
    sortable_attributes [:title]
    ranking_rules [
      'proximity',
      'typo',
      'words',
      'attribute',
      'sort',
      'exactness',
      'publication_year:desc'
    ]
    synonyms nyc: ['new york']

    # The following parameters are applied when calling the search() method:
    attributes_to_highlight ['*']
    attributes_to_crop [:description]
    crop_length 10
    faceting max_values_per_facet: 2000
    pagination max_total_hits: 1000
  end
end

Check the dedicated section of the documentation, for more information on the settings.

🔍 Custom search

All the supported options are described in the search parameters section of the documentation.

Book.search('Harry', attributes_to_highlight: ['*'])

Then it's possible to retrieve the highlighted or cropped value by using the formatted method available in the object.

harry_book.formatted # => {"id"=>"1", "name"=>"<em>Harry</em> Potter", "description"=>…

👉 Don't forget that attributes_to_highlight, attributes_to_crop, and crop_length can be set up in the meilisearch block of your model.

🔍 Sorted search

As an example of how to use the sort option, here is how you could achieve returning all books sorted by title in ascending order:

Book.search('*', sort: ['title:asc'])

👉 Don't forget to set up the sortable_attributes option in the meilisearch block of your model.

🪛 Options

Meilisearch configuration & environment

Backend Pagination with `kaminari` or `will_paginate`

This gem supports:

kaminari
will_paginate

Specify the :pagination_backend in the configuration file:

MeiliSearch::Rails.configuration = {
  meilisearch_url: 'YourMeilisearchUrl',
  meilisearch_api_key: 'YourMeilisearchAPIKey',
  pagination_backend: :kaminari # :will_paginate
}

Then, as soon as you use the search method, the returning results will be paginated:

# controller
@hits = Book.search('harry potter')

# views
<% @hits.each do |hit| %>
  <%= hit.title %>
  <%= hit.author %>
<% end %>

<%= paginate @hits %> # if using kaminari

<%= will_paginate @hits %> # if using will_paginate

The number of hits per page defaults to 20, you can customize it by adding the hits_per_page parameter to your search:

Book.search('harry potter', hits_per_page: 10)

Backend Pagination with `pagy`

This gem supports pagy to paginate your search results.

To use pagy with your meilisearch-rails you need to:

Add the pagy gem to your Gemfile. Create a new initializer pagy.rb with this:

# config/initializers/pagy.rb

require 'pagy/extras/meilisearch'

Then in your model you must extend Pagy::Meilisearch:

class Book < ApplicationRecord
  include MeiliSearch::Rails
  extend Pagy::Meilisearch

  meilisearch # ...
end

And in your controller and view:

# controllers/books_controller.rb
def search
  hits = Book.pagy_search(params[:query])
  @pagy, @hits = pagy_meilisearch(hits, items: 25)
end


# views/books/search.html.rb
<%== pagy_nav(@pagy) %>

⚠️ There is no need to set pagination_backend in the configuration block MeiliSearch::Rails.configuration for pagy.

Check ddnexus/pagy for more information.

Deactivate Meilisearch in certain moments

By default HTTP connections to the Meilisearch URL is always active, but sometimes you want to disable the HTTP requests in a particular moment or environment.
you have multiple ways to achieve this.

By adding active: false in the configuration initializer:

MeiliSearch::Rails.configuration = {
  meilisearch_url: 'YourMeilisearchUrl',
  meilisearch_api_key: 'YourMeilisearchAPIKey',
  active: false
}

Or you can disable programmatically:

MeiliSearch::Rails.deactivate! # all the following HTTP calls will be dismissed.

# or you can pass a block to it:

MeiliSearch::Rails.deactivate! do
  # every Meilisearch call here will be dismissed, no error will be raised.
  # after the block, Meilisearch state will be active. 
end

You can also activate if you deactivated earlier:

MeiliSearch::Rails.activate!

⚠️ These calls are persistent, so prefer to use the method with the block. This way, you will not forget to activate it afterward.

Custom index_uid

By default, the index_uid will be the class name, e.g. Book. You can customize the index_uid by using the index_uid: option.

class Book < ActiveRecord::Base
  include MeiliSearch::Rails

  meilisearch index_uid: 'MyCustomUID'
end

Index UID according to the environment

You can suffix the index UID with the current Rails environment by setting it globally:

MeiliSearch::Rails.configuration = {
  meilisearch_url: 'YourMeilisearchUrl',
  meilisearch_api_key: 'YourMeilisearchAPIKey',
  per_environment: true
}

This way your index UID will look like this "Book_#{Rails.env}".

Index configuration

Custom attribute definition

You can add a custom attribute by using the add_attribute option or by using a block.

⚠️ When using custom attributes, the gem is not able to detect changes on them. Your record will be pushed to the API even if the custom attribute didn't change. To prevent this behavior, you can create a will_save_change_to_#{attr_name}? method.

class Author < ApplicationRecord
  include MeiliSearch::Rails

  meilisearch do
    attribute :first_name, :last_name
    attribute :full_name do
      "#{first_name} #{last_name}"
    end
    add_attribute :full_name_reversed
  end

  def full_name_reversed
    "#{last_name} #{first_name}"
  end

  def will_save_change_to_full_name?
    will_save_change_to_first_name? || will_save_change_to_last_name?
  end

  def will_save_change_to_full_name_reversed?
    will_save_change_to_first_name? || will_save_change_to_last_name?
  end
end

Custom primary key

By default, the primary key is based on your record's id. You can change this behavior by specifying the primary_key: option.

Note that the primary key must return a unique value otherwise your data could be overwritten.

class Book < ActiveRecord::Base
  include MeiliSearch::Rails

  meilisearch primary_key: :isbn # isbn is a column in your table definition.
end

You can also set the primary_key as a method, this method will be evaluated in runtime, and its return will be used as the reference to the document when Meilisearch needs it.

class Book < ActiveRecord::Base
  include MeiliSearch::Rails

  meilisearch primary_key: :my_custom_ms_id

  private

  def my_custom_ms_id
    "isbn_#{primary_key}" # ensure this return is unique, otherwise you'll lose data.
  end
end

Conditional indexing

You can control if a record must be indexed by using the if: or unless: options.
As soon as you use those constraints, add_documents and delete_documents calls will be performed in order to keep the index synced with the DB. To prevent this behavior, you can create a will_save_change_to_#{attr_name}? method.

class Book < ActiveRecord::Base
  include MeiliSearch::Rails

  meilisearch if: :published?, unless: :premium?

  def published?
    # [...]
  end

  def premium?
    # [...]
  end

  def will_save_change_to_published?
    # return true only if you know that the 'published' state changed
  end
end

Target multiple indexes

You can index a record in several indexes using the add_index option:

class Book < ActiveRecord::Base
  include MeiliSearch::Rails

  PUBLIC_INDEX_UID = 'Books'
  SECURED_INDEX_UID = 'PrivateBooks'

  # store all books in index 'SECURED_INDEX_UID'
  meilisearch index_uid: SECURED_INDEX_UID do
    searchable_attributes [:title, :author]

    # store all 'public' (released and not premium) books in index 'PUBLIC_INDEX_UID'
    add_index PUBLIC_INDEX_UID, if: :public? do
      searchable_attributes [:title, :author]
    end
  end

  private

  def public?
    released? && !premium?
  end
end

Share a single index

You may want to share an index between several models. You'll need to ensure you don't have any conflict with the primary_key of the models involved.

class Cat < ActiveRecord::Base
  include MeiliSearch::Rails

  meilisearch index_uid: 'Animals', primary_key: :ms_id

  private

  def ms_id
    "cat_#{primary_key}" # ensure the cats & dogs primary_keys are not conflicting
  end
end

class Dog < ActiveRecord::Base
  include MeiliSearch::Rails

  meilisearch index_uid: 'Animals', primary_key: :ms_id

  private

  def ms_id
    "dog_#{primary_key}" # ensure the cats & dogs primary_keys are not conflicting
  end
end

Queues & background jobs

You can configure the auto-indexing & auto-removal process to use a queue to perform those operations in background. ActiveJob queues are used by default but you can define your own queuing mechanism:

class Book < ActiveRecord::Base
  include MeiliSearch::Rails

  meilisearch enqueue: true # ActiveJob will be triggered using a `meilisearch` queue
end

🤔 If you are performing updates and deletions in the background, a record deletion can be committed to your database prior to the job actually executing. Thus if you were to load the record to remove it from the database then your ActiveRecord#find will fail with a RecordNotFound.

In this case you can bypass loading the record from ActiveRecord and just communicate with the index directly.

With ActiveJob:

class Book < ActiveRecord::Base
  include MeiliSearch::Rails

  meilisearch enqueue: :trigger_job do
    attribute :title, :author, :description
  end

  def self.trigger_job(record, remove)
    MyActiveJob.perform_later(record.id, remove)
  end
end

class MyActiveJob < ApplicationJob
  def perform(id, remove)
    if remove
      # The record has likely already been removed from your database so we cannot
      # use ActiveRecord#find to load it.
      # We access the underlying Meilisearch index object.
      Book.index.delete_document(id)
    else
      # The record should be present.
      Book.find(id).index!
    end
  end
end

With Sidekiq:

class Book < ActiveRecord::Base
  include MeiliSearch::Rails

  meilisearch enqueue: :trigger_sidekiq_job do
    attribute :title, :author, :description
  end

  def self.trigger_sidekiq_job(record, remove)
    MySidekiqJob.perform_async(record.id, remove)
  end
end

class MySidekiqJob
  def perform(id, remove)
    if remove
      # The record has likely already been removed from your database so we cannot
      # use ActiveRecord#find to load it.
      # We access the underlying Meilisearch index object.
      Book.index.delete_document(id)
    else
      # The record should be present.
      Book.find(id).index!
    end
  end
end

With DelayedJob:

class Book < ActiveRecord::Base
  include MeiliSearch::Rails

  meilisearch enqueue: :trigger_delayed_job do
    attribute :title, :author, :description
  end

  def self.trigger_delayed_job(record, remove)
    if remove
      record.delay.remove_from_index!
    else
      record.delay.index!
    end
  end
end

Relations

Extend a change to a related record.

With ActiveRecord, you'll need to use touch and after_touch.

class Author < ActiveRecord::Base
  include MeiliSearch::Rails

  has_many :books
  # If your association uses belongs_to
  # - use `touch: true`
  # - do not define an `after_save` hook
  after_save { books.each(&:touch) }
end

class Book < ActiveRecord::Base
  include MeiliSearch::Rails

  belongs_to :author
  after_touch :index!

  meilisearch do
    attribute :title, :description, :publisher
    attribute :author do
      author.name
    end
  end
end

With Sequel, you can use the touch plugin to propagate changes.

# app/models/author.rb
class Author < Sequel::Model
  include MeiliSearch::Rails

  one_to_many :books

  plugin :timestamps
  # Can't use the associations since it won't trigger the after_save
  plugin :touch

  # Define the associations that need to be touched here
  # Less performant, but allows for the after_save hook to be triggered
  def touch_associations
    apps.map(&:touch)
  end

  def touch
    super
    touch_associations
  end
end

# app/models/book.rb
class Book < Sequel::Model
  include MeiliSearch::Rails

  many_to_one :author
  after_touch :index!

  plugin :timestamps
  plugin :touch

  meilisearch do
    attribute :title, :description, :publisher
    attribute :author do
      author.name
    end
  end
end

Sanitize attributes

You can strip all HTML tags from your attributes with the sanitize option.

class Book < ActiveRecord::Base
  include MeiliSearch::Rails

  meilisearch sanitize: true
end

UTF-8 encoding

You can force the UTF-8 encoding of all your attributes using the force_utf8_encoding option.

class Book < ActiveRecord::Base
  include MeiliSearch::Rails

  meilisearch force_utf8_encoding: true
end

Eager loading

You can eager load associations using meilisearch_import scope.

class Author < ActiveRecord::Base
  include MeiliSearch::Rails

  has_many :books

  scope :meilisearch_import, -> { includes(:books) }
end

Manual operations

Indexing & deletion

You can manually index a record by using the index! instance method and remove it by using the remove_from_index! instance method.

book = Book.create!(title: 'The Little Prince', author: 'Antoine de Saint-Exupéry')
book.index!
book.remove_from_index!
book.destroy!

To reindex all your records, use the reindex! class method:

Book.reindex!

# You can also index a subset of your records
Book.where('updated_at > ?', 10.minutes.ago).reindex!

To delete all your records, use the clear_index! class method:

Book.clear_index!

Access the underlying index object

To access the index object and use the Ruby SDK methods for an index, call the index class method:

index = Book.index
# index.get_settings, index.number_of_documents

Development & testing

Exceptions

You can disable exceptions that could be raised while trying to reach Meilisearch's API by using the raise_on_failure option:

class Book < ActiveRecord::Base
  include MeiliSearch::Rails

  # Only raise exceptions in development environment.
  meilisearch raise_on_failure: Rails.env.development?
end

Testing

Synchronous testing

You can force indexing and removing to be synchronous by setting the following option:

class Book < ActiveRecord::Base
  include MeiliSearch::Rails

  meilisearch synchronous: true
end

🚨 This is only recommended for testing purposes, the gem will call the wait_for_task method that will stop your code execution until the asynchronous task has been processed by MeilSearch.

Disable auto-indexing & auto-removal

You can disable auto-indexing and auto-removing setting the following options:

class Book < ActiveRecord::Base
  include MeiliSearch::Rails

  meilisearch auto_index: false, auto_remove: false
end

You can temporarily disable auto-indexing using the without_auto_index scope:

Book.without_auto_index do
  # Inside this block, auto indexing task will not run.
  1.upto(10000) { Book.create! attributes }
end

⚙️ Development workflow & contributing

Any new contribution is more than welcome in this project!

If you want to know more about the development workflow or want to contribute, please visit our contributing guidelines for detailed instructions!

👏 Credits

The provided features and the code base is inspired by algoliasearch-rails.

Meilisearch provides and maintains many SDKs and Integration tools like this one. We want to provide everyone with an amazing search experience for any kind of project. If you want to contribute, make suggestions, or just know what's going on right now, visit us in the integration-guides repository.

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