Hi all, I''ve used ruby and ferret for the past one month to index resumes. Now I need a web front-end to the application and the obvious choice turns out to be rails. But as I''m not interested in using a database and intend to just use the index, I''m not sure as to how to put it into the MVC framework as the model implicitly takes a database. Is there a way it can take an index instead by using acts_as_ferret. Basically, all the functionality I want is to take some input and provide it to the back-end ruby code which does the parsing, and some index related work, which may be done either at the front-end or preferably, at the back-end. It''s the usage of rails I''m not sure about as I''ve never used it before. Thanks a lot, Pulkit -- The dumb''s song to the deaf is exactly what music is to us. The best things in the world are free. Pulkit Bhuwalka Dept. Of Information Science BMS College Of Engineering, Bangalore -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://rubyforge.org/pipermail/ferret-talk/attachments/20070814/a0be07ed/attachment.html
Pulkit,> I''ve used ruby and ferret for the past one month to index resumes. Now I > need a web front-end to the application and the obvious choice turns out > to > be rails. But as I''m not interested in using a database and intend to just > use the index, I''m not sure as to how to put it into the MVC framework as > the model implicitly takes a database. Is there a way it can take an index > instead by using acts_as_ferret.There are other web frameworks (like http://code.whytheluckystiff.net/shoes/) so you don''t necessarily need to use rails. However, even in Rails you model classes must not inherit from ActiveRecord. It''s just that all tutorials, screencasts, etc. focus on db-model classes. Its perfectly fine to create a non-db model class (based on Object), that acts as a wrapper for ferret. acts_as_ferret is just a bridge between you db objects and ferret. so if you do not have db objects (and therefore don''t inherit from AR), you can''t use acts_as_ferret (at least not without some non-trivial changes). I would suggest to build a ferret-model-object that handels all search requests. Ben
Pulkit wrote:>> I''ve used ruby and ferret for the past one month to index resumes. >> Now I need a web front-end to the application and the obvious >> choice turns out to be rails. But as I''m not interested in using a >> database and intend to just use the index, I''m not sure as to how >> to put it into the MVC framework as the model implicitly takes a >> database. Is there a way it can take an index instead by using >> acts_as_ferret.Benjamin Krause wrote:> There are other web frameworks (like > http://code.whytheluckystiff.net/shoes/) so you don''t necessarily > need to use rails. However, even in Rails you model classes must not > inherit from ActiveRecord. It''s just that all tutorials, screencasts, > etc. focus on db-model classes. Its perfectly fine to create a non-db > model class (based on Object), that acts as a wrapper for ferret. > > acts_as_ferret is just a bridge between you db objects and ferret. so > if you do not have db objects (and therefore don''t inherit from AR), > you can''t use acts_as_ferret (at least not without some non-trivial > changes). > > I would suggest to build a ferret-model-object that handels all > search requests.Stuart Sierra replies: I did something similar to this with a model class that stored everything in XML files and used Ferret for searching. To make it easier to use with Rails, I imitated some of the methods of ActiveRecord::Base, like find(). It was a bit cumbersome, but it worked. The only problem is, as this list demonstrates, Ferret indexes aren''t always the most reliable place to store your data. I''d advise keeping a permanent copy in files or a database somewhere so you can rebuild the index if it gets corrupted or when the Ferret version changes. -S
> The only problem is, as this list demonstrates, Ferret indexes aren''t > always the most reliable place to store your data. I''d advise keeping a > permanent copy in files or a database somewhere so you can rebuild the > index if it gets corrupted or when the Ferret version changes.i agree to that.. it might not be a problem, if you have a static index that never changes. but as soon as your index evolves, you will find yourself in a situation where an index rebuild is necessary. Ben
Hi, The permanent data is going to be stored separately but as data is parsed into fragments before indexing, it isn''t a very good idea to rebuild the index...However, i was looking at rails just to provide the front-end to the indexing and searching that would go on in the backend, which doesn''t really justify it''s usage but i thought it would probably give more flexibility dealing with the index..I am hoping to make a model based on an index so it can communicate easily with the core program and work it out from there, but it''ll need some reading as I only started rails today.. Thanks a lot, Pulkit On 8/14/07, Benjamin Krause <bk at benjaminkrause.com> wrote:> > > > The only problem is, as this list demonstrates, Ferret indexes aren''t > > always the most reliable place to store your data. I''d advise keeping a > > permanent copy in files or a database somewhere so you can rebuild the > > index if it gets corrupted or when the Ferret version changes. > > i agree to that.. it might not be a problem, if you have a static index > that never changes. but as soon as your index evolves, you will find > yourself in a situation where an index rebuild is necessary. > > Ben > > > _______________________________________________ > Ferret-talk mailing list > Ferret-talk at rubyforge.org > http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/ferret-talk >-- The dumb''s song to the deaf is exactly what music is to us. The best things in the world are free. A foolish dreamer who knows reality is more vague than a dream and that a song''s "realer" than the same makes reality. Pulkit Bhuwalka Dept. Of Information Science BMS College Of Engineering, Bangalore -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://rubyforge.org/pipermail/ferret-talk/attachments/20070814/b21eb20e/attachment.html