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Advanced Mode

"Advanced" searches Rails's nested attributes functionality in order to generate complex queries with nested AND/OR groupings, etc. This takes a bit more work but can generate some pretty cool search interfaces that put a lot of power in the hands of your users.

A notable drawback with these searches is that the increased size of the parameter string will typically force you to use the HTTP POST method instead of GET.

Tweak your routes​

resources :people do
  collection do
    match 'search' => 'people#search', via: [:get, :post], as: :search
  end
end

Add a controller action​

def search
  index
  render :index
end

Update your form​

<%= search_form_for @q, url: search_people_path,
                        html: { method: :post } do |f| %>

Once you've done so, you can make use of the helpers in Ransack::Helpers::FormBuilder to construct much more complex search forms, such as the one on the demo app (source code here).