I understand how to create a vanity URL in Rails in order to translate
http://mysite.com/forum/1 into http://mysite.com/some-forum-name
But I'd like to take it a step further and get the following working (if it is possible at all):
Instead of:
http://mysite.com/forum/1/board/99/thread/321
I'd like in the first step to get to something like this: http://mysite.com/1/99/321
and ultimately have it like http://mysite.com/some-forum-name/some-board-name/this-is-the-thread-subject.
Is this possible?
To have this work "nicely" with the Rails URL helpers you have to override to_param in your model:
def to_param
permalink
end
Where permalink is generated by perhaps a before_save
before_save :set_permalink
def set_permalink
self.permalink = title.parameterize
end
The reason you create a permalink is because, eventually, maybe, potentially, you'll have a title that is not URL friendly. That is where parameterize comes in.
Now, as for finding those posts based on what permalink is you can either go the easy route or the hard route.
Easy route
Define to_param slightly differently:
def to_param
id.to_s + permalink
end
Continue using Forum.find(params[:id]) where params[:id] would be something such as 1-my-awesome-forum. Why does this still work? Well, Rails will call to_i on the argument passed to find, and calling to_i on that string will return simply 1.
Hard route
Leave to_param the same. Resort to using find_by_permalink in your controllers, using params[:id] which is passed in form the routes:
Model.find_by_permalink(params[:id])
Now for the fun part
Now you want to take the resource out of the URL. Well, it's a Sisyphean approach. Sure you could stop using the routing helpers Ruby on Rails provides such as map.resources and define them using map.connect but is it really worth that much gain? What "special super powers" does it grant you? None, I'm afraid.
But still if you wanted to do that, here's a great place to start from:
get ':forum_id/:board_id/:topic_id', :to => "topics#show", :as => "forum_board_topic"
Take a look at the Rails Routing from the Outside In guide.
maybe try something like
map.my_thread ':forum_id/:board_od/:thread_id.:format', :controller => 'threads', :action => 'show'
And then in your controller have
#forum = Forum.find(params[:forum_id])
#board = #forum.find(params[:board_id])
#thread = #board.find(params[:thread_id])
Notice that you can have that model_id be anything (the name in this case)
In your view, you can use
<%= link_to my_thread_path(#forum, #board, #thread) %>
I hope this helps
Related
I use in my app to_param to create custom URL (this custom path contains slashes):
class Machine < ActiveRecord::Base
def to_param
MachinePrettyPath.show_path(self, cut_model_text: true)
end
end
The thing is, that since Rails 4.1.2 behaviour changed and Rails doesn't allow to use slashes in the URL (when use custom URL), so it escapes slashes.
I had such routes:
Rails.application.routes.draw do
scope "(:locale)", locale: /#{I18n.available_locales.join("|")}/ do
resources :machines, except: :destroy do
collection do
get :search
get 'search/:ad_type(/:machine_type(/:machine_subtype(/:brand)))', action: 'search', as: :pretty_search
get ':subcategory/:brand(/:model)/:id', action: 'show', as: :pretty
patch ':subcategory/:brand(/:model)/:id', action: 'update' # To be able to update machines with new rich paths.
end
end
end
end
I tried by recommendation in the thread to use glob param just for show method to make sure it works:
resources :machines, except: :destroy do
#...
end
scope format: false do
get '/machines/*id', to: "machines#show"
end
But it absolutely doesn't work. I still have such broken links:
http://localhost:3000/machines/tractor%2Fminitractor%2Fmodel1%2F405
Of course, if I replace escaped slashes on myself:
http://localhost:3000/machines/tractor/minitractor/model1/405
And try to visit path, then page'll be opened.
Any ideas how can I fix that?
I've been having the same problem when using the auto-generated url helpers. I used a debugger to trace the new behavior to its source (somewhere around ActionDispatch::Journey::Visitors::Formatter), but didn't find any promising solutions. It looks like the parameterized model is now strictly treated as a single slash-delimited segment of the path and escaped accordingly, with no options to tell the formatter otherwise.
As far as I can tell, the only way to get the url helper to produce the old result is to use your original routes file and pass each segment separately, something like:
pretty_machine_path(machine.subcategory, machine.brand, machine.model, machine.id)
This is ugly as hell and obviously not something you'll want to do over and over. You could add a method to MachinePrettyPath to generate the segments as an array and explode the result for the helper (say, pretty_machine_path(*MachinePrettyPath.show_path_segments(machine))) but that's still pretty verbose.
Between the above headaches and the "You're Doing it Wrong" attitude from the devs in that Rails ticket you linked to, the simplest option for me was to bite the bullet and write a custom URL helper instead of using to_param. I've yet to find a good example of the "right" way to do that, but something like this bare-bones example should serve the purpose:
#app/helpers/urls_helper.rb
module UrlsHelper
def machine_path(machine, options = {})
pretty_machine_path(*MachinePrettyPath.show_path_segments(machine), options)
end
end
#app/controllers/application_controller.rb
class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
helper :urls #for the views
include UrlsHelper #for controllers
#...
end
If you're sure the returned url is safe you should add .html_safe to the returned string:
MachinePrettyPath.show_path(self, cut_model_text: true).html_safe
(didn't see anywhere else where it can be escaped but check all the flow in your app, maybe manually testing method by by method)
How about defining the url yourself?
def to_param
"#{ subcategory.title.parameterize }/#{ brand.name.parameterize }/#{ model.name.parameterize) }/#{ id }"
end
And then in your routes something like this:
get 'machines/*id', to: "machines#show"
You also have to split your params[:id] when you do a find on your model.
Machine.find( params[:id].split("/").last )
I'm wondering if it's possible to edit the default Rails routing convention to fetch a specific record based on a field that is not the ID?
For instance, instead of retrieving a specific record based on ID, with the verb/url combination:
GET /users/:id
Retrieve a specific record based on username, with the verb/url combination:
GET /users/:username
I don't see why this would be a problem theoretically, as long as usernames were required to be unique, but I'm having trouble understanding how to implement it based on the Rails Routing Guide.
I have gathered that I will need to add a line to my routes.rb file, to define a singular resource, just prior to:
resources :users
However, I'm having trouble understanding the syntax to accomplish this. Any help in understanding this would be greatly appreciated.
Yes it is possible and they are called Non Restful Routes in the rails documentation
A trivial example is doing the below in your routes.rb
get ':users/:show/:username', controller: "users", action: "show"
and in your UsersController you have a show action that looks like this:
def show
if params[:id].present?
#user = User.find(params[:id])
elsif params[:username].present?
#user = User.find_by(username: params[:username])
end
end
This way you support showing by id and username, if you want do disable support for either of them, modify the if clause as you wish
I think you are looking to change the to_param method like so:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
def to_param
"#{id} #{name}".parameterize
end
end
This would give the url as: /user/id-name. If you want to get rid of the id before the name it gets a little more complicated. If you were just to remove it, it will more than likely break since ActiveRecord needs the id first for finds.
To get around this I would suggest using FriendlyId gem: https://github.com/norman/friendly_id
There is also a RailsCast showing how to use Friendly_id but its pretty straight forward.
The routes does not care if it is an ID or username.
It is really how you find it in the controller.
Just in the user show controller:
def show
#user = User.find_by_username params[:id]
end
I've got this helper method in my application controller:
def current_team
#current_team ||= Team.find(params[:team_id])
end
Problem is, it works for urls of the format:
/teams/20/members/11
but it doesn't work for:
/teams/20
In order to get it to work for those, I have to change :team_id to be :id.
How can I tidy it up so it 'just works'?
Thanks!
Set instance variables (#current_team) in controllers, never in helpers. It's not what helpers are for.
If you follow this advice, you will naturally use params[:id] in TeamsController, but params[:team_id] in MembersController.
(Some people even go on to say that you shouldn't use helpers at all. For facilitating presentation (custom links, buttons, tables, etc), they propose to use Presenter pattern. But you don't have to listen to them. :))
It is not the best thing to do, but to accomplish that you can do the following:
def current_team
#current_team ||= Team.find(params[:team_id].presence || params[:id])
end
Documentation about the Object.presence method:
http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/Object.html#method-i-presence
#SergioTulentsev is right, you shall not set instance variables in helpers, only in controllers.
I'm assuming you have other resources besides just Team. Rails is going to use the :id param for all of your resources. You will need to look into customizing the routes for your teams#show action. Easier in Rails 4 than in Rails 3.
Have a look at this post for the gory details: Change the name of the :id parameter in Routing resources for Rails
I wouldn't do params[:team_id] || params[:id], because of course in some controller contexts you'd get an id parameter that represents the id for something other than a Team. Assuming that the /teams/:id route is handled by the TeamsController, then you could do the following (to keep your method in ApplicationController and avoid repeating yourself in different controllers):
def current_team
id = controller_name == "teams" ? params[:id] : params[:team_id]
#current_team ||= Team.find(id)
end
Alternatively, you could change your routes so that the url to show a Team is /teams/:team_id and leave your helper as-is, but that would go against the grain of Rails routing conventions.
StackOverflow seems to have this style of routes for questions:
/questions/:id/*slug
Which is easy enough to achieve, both in routes and to_param.
However, StackOverflow seems to also redirect to that path when just an ID is passed.
Example:
stackoverflow.com/questions/6841333
redirects to:
stackoverflow.com/questions/6841333/why-is-subtracting-these-two-times-in-1927-giving-a-strange-result/
Same goes for any variation of the slug
stackoverflow.com/questions/6841333/some-random-stuff
Will still redirect to the same URL.
My question is: Is this type of redirection typically handled in the controller (comparing the request to the route) or is there a way to do this in routes.rb?
The reason I wouldn't think this possible in the routes.rb file is that typically, you don't have access to the object (so you couldn't get the slug based off the ID, right?)
For anyone interested, Rails 3.2.13 and also using FriendlyID
Ok, so I think I've got this.
I was looking into doing something with middleware, but then decided that's probably not the place for this type of functionality (since we need to access ActiveRecord).
So I ended up building a service object, known as a PathCheck. The service looks like this:
class PathCheck
def initialize(model, request)
#model = model
#request = request
end
# Says if we are already where we need to be
# /:id/*slug
def at_proper_path?
#request.fullpath == proper_path
end
# Returns what the proper path is
def proper_path
Rails.application.routes.url_helpers.send(path_name, #model)
end
private
def path_name
return "edit_#{model_lowercase_name}_path" if #request.filtered_parameters["action"] == "edit"
"#{model_lowercase_name}_path"
end
def model_lowercase_name
#model.class.name.underscore
end
end
This is easy enough to implement into my controller:
def show
#post = Post.find params[:post_id] || params[:id]
check_path
end
private
def check_path
path_check = PathCheck.new #post, request
redirect_to path_check.proper_path if !path_check.at_proper_path?
end
My || in my find method is because in order to maintain resourceful routes, I did something like...
resources :posts do
get '*id' => 'posts#show'
end
Which will make a routes like: /posts/:post_id/*id on top of /posts/:id
This way, the numeric id is primarily used to look up the record, if available. This allows us to loosely match /posts/12345/not-the-right-slug to be redirected to /posts/12345/the-right-slug
The service is written in a universal fashion, so I can use it in any resourceful controller. I have't found a way to break it yet, but I'm open to correction.
Resources
Railscast #398: Service Objects by Ryan Bates
This Helpful Tweet by Jared Fine
How do I get the to_param method to deliver keyword slugs all the time? I have trouble getting it to work with this route:
map.pike '/auction/:auction_id/item/:id', :controller => 'items', :action => 'show'
Earlier the overridden to_param was working for
'items/1-cashmere-scarf'
but fails with 'auction/123/item/1'
Update:
I'm not sure if the syntax is correct[(edit: it's correct: it works :-)], or even efficient.... but using haml, I found that the following code works to generate the desired link ('auction/:auction_id/item/:id')
- for auction in #auctions.sort{|a, b| a.scheduled_start <=> b.scheduled_start}
-for item in #items
- unless auction.current_auction
... pike_path(auction.auction_id, item)
I'm not sure whether I understand your question. (it's 3:41 AM here)
From what I see, you directly access auction_id method, instead of using pike_path(auction, item) that'd use #to_param.
Also, it might fail for auction/123/item/1 because you haven't changed your controller.
I think it'd be helpful to describe how to get working slugs.
Broadly speaking, if you override #to_param, IDs no longer works. It means, that if you go with slugs, every time polymorpic URL is generated (eg, link_to object, object), it passes to_param's value. It is worth noting that you must change your controller as well.
Personally I think that the best way to generate slugs easily is to use techno-weenie's permalink_fu, adding has_permalink to your model, and then, override to_param. For example
class Auction < ActiveRecord::Base
has_permalink :title, :slug
end
assuming that you have slug, a string field, and want to slugize your title.
You also need to adjust your controller:
class AuctionsController < ApplicationController
def show
#auction = Auction.find_by_slug(params[:id]) || raise(ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound)
respond_to do |format|
format.html # show.html.erb
end
end
Then, you can generate routes, in the views, this way:
link_to #action, #action
By the way, you should NOT sort your actions in the view. The best way is to use named_scope.