Strip out invalid characters from search + add tests for this

app/controllers/search_controller.rb

@@ -12,7 +12,12 @@ def self.index_tank
 
   # retrieve docs from IndexTank
   def self.search(query)
-    index_tank.search("#{query} OR title:#{query}", :fetch => 'timestamp,url,text,title', :snippet => 'text')
+    query = query.gsub(/\W+/,' ').strip
+
+    if query.present?
+      query << "*"
+      index_tank.search("#{query} OR title:#{query}", :fetch => 'timestamp,url,text,title', :snippet => 'text')
+    end
   end
 
   def index

spec/requests/search_spec.rb

@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+require "spec_helper"
+
+describe "Search" do
+  context "When the user searches for" do
+    before(:each) do
+      visit '/'
+      @user = FactoryGirl.create(:student_sam)
+      login_with_oauth @user
+      click_button('searchSubmit')
+    end
+
+    it "nothing - page should render" do
+      current_path.should == search_index_path
+    end
+
+    it "valid string - page should show the results" do
+      fill_in "query", :with => "Search String"
+      click_button('searchSubmit')
+      page.should have_content('Your search for "Search String" returned 0 results')
+    end
+
+    describe "invalid string" do
+      it "like '-+_' - the page should not tank" do
+        fill_in "query", :with => "-+_"
+        click_button('searchSubmit')
+        current_path.should == search_index_path
+        page.should have_content('Search for: ')
+      end
+      it "like '-%20%3C/p%3E%20-' - the page should not tank" do
+        fill_in "query", :with => "-%20%3C/p%3E%20-"
+        click_button('searchSubmit')
+        page.should have_content('Your search for "-%20%3C/p%3E%20-" returned 0 results')
+      end
+    end
+  end
+end