Rails core - Jul 2012 - RFC: MyModel#to_params for use in url helpers & url_for

Building a website with SEO considerations leads to have slugs in the urls.

There is the trivial case of /products/256-my-great-product easily done 
changing Product#to_param. But there many others cases not as trivial.

Considering the route (i use a plain match-like route instead of resourcesfor
the example) :

get "/products/:type_slug/:brand_slug/:token-:slug", :to =>
"controller#action", :as => "product"

*I''d add that the id is in fact a md5-like id (NoSQL : mongodb, 
couchdb....), so we want naturally use a short token.*

Obviously, link_to("My product", @myproduct), url_for(@myproduct) and 
product_path(@myproduct) fail.

To generate such a route, we need to do :
 
product_path(:type_slug => product.type_slug, :brand_slug =>
product.brand_slug, :token => product.token, :slug => product.slug)
 

 So here is the thing. Doing link_to("My product", @myproduct), 
url_for(@myproduct) and product_path(@myproduct) is nice.

If we manually define :
 
class Product
  def to_params
    {
      :token => token,
      :slug => slug,
      :brand_slug => brand_slug,
      :type_slug => type_slug
    }
  endend
 

 Then we could use product_path(@myproduct.to_params).

And if the named url helpers recognize that our object respond_to? 
:to_params, using this #to_params-returned Hash to build the url, we could 
use product_path(@myproduct). For now, a named url helper is just basically 
replacing the dynamic url segments from left to right by its arguments from 
first to last, applying them a #to_param.

And if the polymorphic_url recognize that our object respond_to? :to_params, 
passing this #to_params-returned Hash to the named url helper, we could use
link_to("My
product", @myproduct), url_for(@myproduct).

Just enough to be nice. And SEO-friendly without pain.

Waiting for comments, thoughts and anything else helpful :)

Maxime.

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Seems like this belongs in a helper.

slugged_product_path(@product)

Alternatively, you could simply pre-generate the slugged-URL and store
it with the product itself, or in a K/V store, or etc.  Generating a
slugged path every single time doesn''t seem like the best use of
resources.  Regardless, I''m not sure this logic necessarily belongs in
the Model.  I''d probably create a SluggedPathsHelper module and store
this logic there, and keep the Model clean.

#to_params is also a terrible name for a method like this.  If you did
put it in the Model, you''d probably want to call it
#slugged_product_path_params.  It''s long, but you''ll know wtf
it does
3-months from now.

Scott

On Jul 15, 1:34 pm, Maxime Garcia <maxime.gar...@free.fr>
wrote:
> Building a website with SEO considerations leads to have slugs in the urls.
>
> There is the trivial case of /products/256-my-great-product easily done
> changing Product#to_param. But there many others cases not as trivial.
>
> Considering the route (i use a plain match-like route instead of
resourcesfor the example) :
>
> get "/products/:type_slug/:brand_slug/:token-:slug", :to =>
"controller#action", :as => "product"
>
> *I''d add that the id is in fact a md5-like id (NoSQL : mongodb,
> couchdb....), so we want naturally use a short token.*
>
> Obviously, link_to("My product", @myproduct), url_for(@myproduct)
and
> product_path(@myproduct) fail.
>
> To generate such a route, we need to do :
>
> product_path(:type_slug => product.type_slug, :brand_slug =>
product.brand_slug, :token => product.token, :slug => product.slug)
>
>  So here is the thing. Doing link_to("My product", @myproduct),
> url_for(@myproduct) and product_path(@myproduct) is nice.
>
> If we manually define :
>
> class Product
>   def to_params
>     {
>       :token => token,
>       :slug => slug,
>       :brand_slug => brand_slug,
>       :type_slug => type_slug
>     }
>   endend
>
>  Then we could use product_path(@myproduct.to_params).
>
> And if the named url helpers recognize that our object respond_to?
> :to_params, using this #to_params-returned Hash to build the url, we could
> use product_path(@myproduct). For now, a named url helper is just basically
> replacing the dynamic url segments from left to right by its arguments from
> first to last, applying them a #to_param.
>
> And if the polymorphic_url recognize that our object respond_to?
:to_params,
> passing this #to_params-returned Hash to the named url helper, we could use
link_to("My
> product", @myproduct), url_for(@myproduct).
>
> Just enough to be nice. And SEO-friendly without pain.
>
> Waiting for comments, thoughts and anything else helpful :)
>
> Maxime.
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