Postgres accent insensitive LIKE search in Rails 3.1 on Heroku

Question

How can I modify a where/like condition on a search query in Rails:

find(:all, :conditions => [\"lower(name) LIKE ?\", \"%#{search.downcase}%\"])

Answer 1

Assuming Foo is the model you are searching against and name is the column. Combining Postgres translate and ActiveSupport's transliterate. You can do something like:

Foo.where(
  "translate(
    LOWER(name),
    'âãäåāăąÁÂÃÄÅĀĂĄèééêëēĕėęěĒĔĖĘĚìíîïìĩīĭÌÍÎÏÌĨĪĬóôõöōŏőÒÓÔÕÖŌŎŐùúûüũūŭůÙÚÛÜŨŪŬŮ',
    'aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiooooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu'
  )
  LIKE ?", "%#{ActiveSupport::Inflector.transliterate("%qué%").downcase}%"
)