ruby on rails 3 - Trying to access sphinx internal data -

i have table countries (model listed below). adding thinking sphinx search , use results displayed.

country.rb

class country < activerecord::base   has_many  :provinces   has_many  :cities   has_many  :zones   has_many  :users   attr_accessible :alpha_2, :alpha_3, :country_name, :numeric, :country_active    scope :ordered, order("country_name")   scope :active, where(:country_active => true)  end 

country_index.rb

thinkingsphinx::index.define :country, :with => :active_record   indexes country_name, :sortable => true    has created_at, updated_at   has "(select count(provinces.id) provinces provinces.country_id = id)", :as => :province_count, :type => :integer end 

in view need add conditional link provinces belong country if province count country greater 0.

count = country.provinces.count if count > 0     link_to(country.country_name, provinces_path(:id => country.id)) else     country.country_name end 

i tried replace active record query count with

count = country.search(:select => "province_count", :with => {:country_name => country.country_name}) 

but not yet successful in getting work yet. how can achieved. working off of this link

two things note should solve problem:

firstly, can force join on associations using join method in index definition - saves on need full subquery:

thinkingsphinx::index.define :country, :with => :active_record   indexes country_name, :sortable => true    has created_at, updated_at   has "count(provinces.id)", :as => :province_count, :type => :integer    join provinces end 

secondly, , more importantly, if wish access sphinx attributes when using search results, need use thinking sphinx pane purpose:

search = country.search(:with => {:sphinx_internal_id => country.id}) search.context[:panes] << thinkingsphinx::panes::attributespane count = search.first.sphinx_attributes['province_count'] 

you'll note i'm filtering primary key instead of country name - id more specific, end specific matches, , also, country name field, not attribute, if want filter fields, use :conditions instead of :with. , if was attribute, can't filter it, sphinx doesn't support filters on string attributes.

please note copying , pasting these 3 lines rails console not work, because console not evaluates lines, outputs result, , outputting search result invokes call sphinx - , panes don't applied appropriately. workaround include ; '' @ end of first line, result gets output empty string:

search = country.search(:with => {:sphinx_internal_id => country.id}); '' search.context[:panes] << thinkingsphinx::panes::attributespane count = search.first.sphinx_attributes['province_count'] 

if performing broad search, not on specific country, , want provinces count each country, can stop reading here. remove filter, make sure add pane, , you're go.

but, if you're running on single country record....

you can simplify things further - want count, after all, not actual country object:

search = country.search(   :with       => {:sphinx_internal_id => country.id},   :middleware => thinkingsphinx::middlewares::raw_only ) search.first['province_count'] 

but really, if have country object, running search sole purpose of getting number of provinces feels overkill me. either call country.provinces.count, or use activerecord's counter_cache option , have column provinces_count on country model - undoubtedly fastest option in long run.

(sorry, answer ended being far longer expected - covers off few different avenues.)