Fixes an issue where ActiveRecord::normalizes (introduced in Rails 7.1) was interfering with LIKE wildcard patterns in Ransack searches, causing incorrect SQL generation.

Problem

When using ActiveRecord::normalizes on a model attribute, Ransack's LIKE-based predicates (cont, i_cont, start, end, etc.) were having their wildcard patterns normalized, breaking the search functionality:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  normalizes :name, with: ->(name) { name.gsub(/[^a-z0-9]/, '_') }
end

User.ransack({ name_cont: 'foo' }).result.to_sql
# Before fix: "SELECT * FROM users WHERE name LIKE '_foo_'"
# After fix:  "SELECT * FROM users WHERE name LIKE '%foo%'"

The issue occurred because ActiveRecord's normalization was being applied to values that Ransack had already formatted with LIKE wildcards (%foo% → _foo_).

Solution

The fix uses Arel::Nodes.build_quoted to wrap formatted values for LIKE predicates, which bypasses ActiveRecord's normalization while preserving it for other predicate types:

• LIKE predicates (cont, start, end, etc.): Wildcards are preserved, normalization bypassed
• Other predicates (eq, gt, etc.): Normalization still applies to search values as expected

Changes

• Modified lib/ransack/nodes/condition.rb to detect LIKE predicates and wrap their values appropriately
• Added comprehensive test coverage for Rails 7.1+ with ActiveRecord::normalizes
• All existing functionality remains unchanged

Testing

The fix includes tests that verify:

• All LIKE predicates work correctly with normalized attributes
• Wildcard patterns are preserved in generated SQL
• Search functionality works end-to-end
• Other predicates continue to normalize search values properly
• Edge cases (empty values, complex patterns, case insensitivity) are handled

Resolves the issue described in the original bug report where % characters in LIKE patterns were being converted to _ by normalization.

Additional instructions:

ensure the specs are added as per last comment

Fixes #1488

💡 You can make Copilot smarter by setting up custom instructions, customizing its development environment and configuring Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers. Learn more Copilot coding agent tips in the docs.