Ad requirement 4

I have no idea how this requirement shall be implemented at the end, but at first step, the tiss_crawler.rb lib checks if the search_term is an empty string and returns an error msg if found

otherwise it returns the result, but appended to 'content' key

app/controllers/crawlers/courses_crawler_controller.rb

@@ -7,7 +7,14 @@ class Crawlers::CoursesCrawlerController < Crawlers::TissCrawlerController
     @host = TissCrawler.host
 
     # TissCrawler performs general search over the available courses
-    @courses = TissCrawler.search(params)
+    result = TissCrawler.search(params)
+    if result.has_key? :error
+      flash[:alert] = 'Something went wrong! ' + result[:error]
+      redirect_back(fallback_location: crawlers_tiss_crawler_search_path)
+    else
+      # TissCrawler performs general search over the available people
+      @courses = result[:content]
+    end
   end
 
   def show_detail

app/controllers/crawlers/people_crawler_controller.rb

@@ -6,8 +6,16 @@ class Crawlers::PeopleCrawlerController < Crawlers::TissCrawlerController
     puts params[:search_context]
     @host = TissCrawler.host
 
-    # TissCrawler performs general search over the available people
+    result = TissCrawler.search(params)
-    @people = TissCrawler.search(params)
+
+    if result.has_key? :error
+      flash[:alert] = 'Something went wrong! ' + result[:error]
+      redirect_back(fallback_location: crawlers_tiss_crawler_search_path)
+    else
+      # TissCrawler performs general search over the available people
+      @people = result[:content]
+    end
+
   end
 
   def show_detail
@@ -39,7 +47,7 @@ class Crawlers::PeopleCrawlerController < Crawlers::TissCrawlerController
     else
       flash[:alert] = 'Person is already favorited!'
     end
-    redirect_back(fallback_location: search)
+    redirect_back(fallback_location: crawlers_tiss_crawler_search_path)
   end
 
 end

app/controllers/crawlers/projects_crawler_controller.rb

@@ -6,7 +6,14 @@ class Crawlers::ProjectsCrawlerController < Crawlers::TissCrawlerController
     @host = TissCrawler.host
 
     # TissCrawler performs general search over the available projects
-    @projects = TissCrawler.search(params)
+    result = TissCrawler.search(params)
+    if result.has_key? :error
+      flash[:alert] = 'Something went wrong! ' + result[:error]
+      redirect_back(fallback_location: crawlers_tiss_crawler_search_path)
+    else
+      # TissCrawler performs general search over the available people
+      @projects = result[:content]
+    end
   end
 
   def show_detail

app/controllers/crawlers/theses_crawler_controller.rb

@@ -6,7 +6,14 @@ class Crawlers::ThesesCrawlerController < Crawlers::TissCrawlerController
     @host = TissCrawler.host
 
     # TissCrawler performs general search over the available theses
-    @theses = TissCrawler.search(params)
+    result = TissCrawler.search(params)
+    if result.has_key? :error
+      flash[:alert] = 'Something went wrong! ' + result[:error]
+      redirect_back(fallback_location: crawlers_tiss_crawler_search_path)
+    else
+      # TissCrawler performs general search over the available people
+      @theses = result[:content]
+    end
   end
 
   def show_detail

lib/tiss/tiss_crawler.rb

@@ -10,10 +10,15 @@ class TissCrawler
     search_parameter = params[:search_parameter]
     search_term = params[:search_term].parameterize(separator: '+')
     url = host + api + '?' + search_parameter + '=' + search_term
-    puts(url)
+    puts('generated url:', url)
+
+    if search_term == ""
+      {'error': 'Dare you try! Empty searches are not allowed!'}
+    else
+      response = HTTParty.get(url)
+      {'content': JSON.parse(response.body)['results']}
+    end
 
-    response = HTTParty.get(url)
-    JSON.parse(response.body)['results']
   end
 
   def self.get_details(params)