============ Rails controller:

class SearchController < ApplicationController
  layout "home"

  # your search string looks like this:
  #
  #   www.[site_not_yet_public].com/search?category=Track&term=funky
  #
  # this code uses the category to build an instance variable which holds
  # the Ferret search results in that category. for instance if you go
  # in the script/console and type "Track".constantize.find_all, you'll
  # get the exact same results you'd get if you typed Track.find_all. so
  # by using constantize, we get Whatever.find() without having to create
  # four separate methods for searching on Track, Beat, User, or Profile
  # objects. instead this code just dynamically obtains the model and then
  # searches for the term, on the model (acts_as_ferret attaches search
  # methods to the model). it first filters the category var to prevent
  # hackers from doing either SQL or Ruby injection attacks.

  def index
    @term = params[:term] || ''
    @category = params[:category]
    if not %w{ Track Beat User Profile }.include? @category
      redirect_to "/"
    else
      instance_variable_set("@#{@category.downcase.pluralize}",
                            (@category.constantize.find_by_contents @term))
    end
  end

end





============ Main Rails view:



<%= render_partial @category.downcase.pluralize %>

<%= render_partial "options" %>





============ Options partial:



<% for word in %w{ tracks beats users profiles } %>

  <% if eval("@#{word}").nil? %>
    <%= link_to "search similar #{word}",
                :action => "index",
                :term => @term,
                :category => word.capitalize.singularize %>
    <br/>
  <% end %>

<% end %>





============ Typical model-specific partial:



<% for beat in @beats %>

  <%= beat.title %><br/>
  <% # model-specific UI or code %>

<% end %>