moving the solr-accessing stuff into helper module, which probably isn't the right place but it's better than having it in the controller, right?

rails/hamster/app/controllers/solr_controller.rb

@@ -3,22 +3,13 @@ require 'rexml/document'
 
 
 class SolrController < ApplicationController
-  $select_url = 'http://localhost:8983/solr/select/'
+  include SolrHelper
 
   def index
     @search = request[:q]
+    @results = []
     if @search != nil
-      raw_results = open("#{$select_url}?q=#{@search}&indent=on").read
+      @results = get_results(@search)
-      xml_results = REXML::Document.new raw_results
-
-      @results = []
-      REXML::XPath.each(xml_results, '//result/doc') do |doc|
-        @results.push({
-          :id => doc.elements['./str[@name="id"]'],
-          :description => doc.elements['./str[@name="name"]']
-        })
-      end
-
     end
   end
 

rails/hamster/app/helpers/solr_helper.rb

@@ -1,2 +1,19 @@
 module SolrHelper
+  $select_url = 'http://localhost:8983/solr/select/'
+
+  def get_results(search)
+      raw_results = open("#{$select_url}?q=#{search}").read
+      xml_results = REXML::Document.new raw_results
+
+      results = []
+      REXML::XPath.each(xml_results, '//result/doc') do |doc|
+        results.push({
+          :id => doc.elements['./str[@name="id"]'],
+          :description => doc.elements['./str[@name="name"]']
+        })
+      end
+
+      return results
+  end
+
 end