Refactor ruby on rails model - ruby

Question

Given the following code,
How would you refactor this so that the method search_word has access to issueid?
I would say that changing the function search_word so it accepts 3 arguments or making issueid an instance variable (#issueid) could be considered as an example of bad practices, but honestly I cannot find any other solution. If there's no solution aside from this, would you mind explaining the reason why there's no other solution?
Please bear in mind that it is a Ruby on Rails model.
def search_type_of_relation_in_text(issueid, type_of_causality)
relation_ocurrences = Array.new
keywords_list = {
:C => ['cause', 'causes'],
:I => ['prevent', 'inhibitors'],
:P => ['type','supersets'],
:E => ['effect', 'effects'],
:R => ['reduce', 'inhibited'],
:S => ['example', 'subsets']
}[type_of_causality.to_sym]
for keyword in keywords_list
relation_ocurrences + search_word(keyword, relation_type)
end
return relation_ocurrences
end
def search_word(keyword, relation_type)
relation_ocurrences = Array.new
#buffer.search('//p[text()*= "'+keyword+'"]/a').each { |relation|
relation_suggestion_url = 'http://en.wikipedia.org'+relation.attributes['href']
relation_suggestion_title = URI.unescape(relation.attributes['href'].gsub("_" , " ").gsub(/[\w\W]*\/wiki\//, ""))
if not #current_suggested[relation_type].include?(relation_suggestion_url)
if #accepted[relation_type].include?(relation_suggestion_url)
relation_ocurrences << {:title => relation_suggestion_title, :wiki_url => relation_suggestion_url, :causality => type_of_causality, :status => "A", :issue_id => issueid}
else
relation_ocurrences << {:title => relation_suggestion_title, :wiki_url => relation_suggestion_url, :causality => type_of_causality, :status => "N", :issue_id => issueid}
end
end
}
end

Answer 1

If you need additional context, pass it through as an additional argument. That's how it's supposed to work.
Setting #-type instance variables to pass context is bad form as you've identified.
There's a number of Ruby conventions you seem to be unaware of:
Instead of Array.new just use [ ], and instead of Hash.new use { }.
Use a case statement or a constant instead of defining a Hash and then retrieving only one of the elements, discarding the remainder.
Avoid using return unless strictly necessary, as the last operation is always returned by default.
Use array.each do |item| instead of for item in array
Use do ... end instead of { ... } for multi-line blocks, where the curly brace version is generally reserved for one-liners. Avoids confusion with hash declarations.
Try and avoid duplicating large chunks of code when the differences are minor. For instance, declare a temporary variable, conditionally manipulate it, then store it instead of defining multiple independent variables.
With that in mind, here's a reworking of it:
KEYWORDS = {
:C => ['cause', 'causes'],
:I => ['prevent', 'inhibitors'],
:P => ['type','supersets'],
:E => ['effect', 'effects'],
:R => ['reduce', 'inhibited'],
:S => ['example', 'subsets']
}
def search_type_of_relation_in_text(issue_id, type_of_causality)
KEYWORDS[type_of_causality.to_sym].collect do |keyword|
search_word(keyword, relation_type, issue_id)
end
end
def search_word(keyword, relation_type, issue_id)
relation_occurrences = [ ]
#buffer.search(%Q{//p[text()*= "#{keyword}'"]/a}).each do |relation|
relation_suggestion_url = "http://en.wikipedia.org#{relation.attributes['href']}"
relation_suggestion_title = URI.unescape(relation.attributes['href'].gsub("_" , " ").gsub(/[\w\W]*\/wiki\//, ""))
if (!#current_suggested[relation_type].include?(relation_suggestion_url))
occurrence = {
:title => relation_suggestion_title,
:wiki_url => relation_suggestion_url,
:causality => type_of_causality,
:issue_id => issue_id
}
occurrence[:status] =
if (#accepted[relation_type].include?(relation_suggestion_url))
'A'
else
'N'
end
relation_ocurrences << occurrence
end
end
relation_occurrences
end