Filter index with has_scope gem and collection_select

Question

I've got a two models: Business and Category . In my business#index view, all Business names are displayed in a table, along with their associated Category . I'm using the has_scope gem and added two scopes to my Business model: :by_category and search . The search scope works fine. The by_category scope does nothing when I select a category from the collection_select and submit the form, but if I hard-code it into the URL in my browser, it works fine.

What I've noticed is that if I hard code the URL as such http://host/businesses?by_category=14 it works. This is what I see in the logs:

Started GET "/businesses?by_category=14" for 127.0.0.1 at 2015-01-28 11:48:07 -0600
Processing by BusinessesController#index as HTML
Parameters: {"by_category"=>"14"}

But when I submit the form with a category selected, the URL appears as http://host/businesses?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search=&category%5Bid%5D=14 . This is what I see in the logs when the form is submitted this way:

Started GET "/businesses?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search=&category%5Bid%5D=14" for 127.0.0.1 at 2015-01-28 11:45:57 -0600
Processing by BusinessesController#index as HTML
Parameters: {"utf8"=>"✓", "search"=>"", "category"=>{"id"=>"14"}}

There's something wrong with the way my form is passing the by_category param, but I just can't put my finger on it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Here's the relevant code.

Models:

class Business < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :category
  ...
  ...
  scope :by_category, -> category { where(:category => category) }
  scope :search, ->(search) { where(arel_table[:title].matches("%#{search}%")) }
end

class Category < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :businesses
end

Business Controller:

class BusinessesController < ApplicationController
  has_scope :by_category
  has_scope :search
  ...
  def index
    @businesses = apply_scopes(Business).all.page(params[:page])
    @categories = Category.all
  end   
end

Business Index:

....
<%= simple_form_for businesses_path, :method => 'get' do %>
  <%= text_field_tag :search, '', placeholder: "Search..." %>
  <%= collection_select :category, :id, @categories, :id, :name, :prompt => "Select Category" %>
  <%= submit_tag "Search", :name => nil %>
<% end %>
...

Answer 1

1st: Notice here, you are submitting the form with a method: 'get', this is the reason why your URL is being encoded.

<%= simple_form_for businesses_path, :method => 'get' do %>
  <!-- other code goes here --> 
<% end %>

Forms should always get submitted with 'post' request not 'get' .

You should make it method: :post , which will give you proper URL params(as you were expecting during inspection).

2nd :

Let' assume, this form is getting submitted to an action search :

def search 
   raise params.inspect 
 end

With above raise statement enabled when you will hit this particular action, then this will list the params(in hash). Then you can always fetch the attributes as per your need.

Hope that helps :)