Ok, I have read most of Agile Web Dev… so I had a question about
beautifying URLs using routes.rb. I’m trying to architect a content
management system in which a user can create template pages. This way,
when a user creates a template page nested within, it displays it as
though it’s displaying a folder structure, much like a directory tree
(using acts_as_tree).
I have a database table set-up with a page ID, page name (title), page
content, parent_id, etc. My question – I’m looking for an easy way such
that the url that the app accesses mirrors a similar directory
structure. So, for example…
Home
^ About Us
^^^ Who we really are (nested within About Us)
I would like to map this to
http://localhost:3000/about-us/who-we-really-are
To help with search engine rankings, and to make an easier url to
remember, and it just looks prettier. This is similar to, say, how
http://rails.techno-weenie.net calls the specific questions on his site.
I can currently map the url correctly, however I have no way of
retrieving the proper value of the id from the url to determine what
page to render.
My routes.rb looks as follows:
map.page ‘:parent_name/:page_name’, :controller => ‘admin’, :action =>
‘render_page’, :requirements => { :parent_name => /[\w-]+/, :page_name
=> /[\w-]+/ }, :page_name => nil
Can I pass the ID of the page without actually revealing it within the
URL? Or perhaps I can search the DB using LIKE by breaking up the name?
On 4/26/06, Eric P. [email protected] wrote:
structure. So, for example…
http://rails.techno-weenie.net calls the specific questions on his site.
Can I pass the ID of the page without actually revealing it within the
URL? Or perhaps I can search the DB using LIKE by breaking up the name?
I’m not claiming this is a ‘best-practice’ or anything, but I’ve
always just put a ‘short_name’ or ‘url_title’ (choose your own column
name as needed) attribute into the database.
I create it behind the scenes in a before_save method, and do
validates_uniqueness_of on it.
That way it’s safe to use as a unique URL, and you can quickly do
“find_by_short_name” to retrieve the instance you’re looking for.
Hopefully others have better ideas, because it’s always seemed a
little hackish to me, despite being very little code.
–Wilson.
Wilson B. wrote:
On 4/26/06, Eric P. [email protected] wrote:
structure. So, for example…
http://rails.techno-weenie.net calls the specific questions on his site.
Can I pass the ID of the page without actually revealing it within the
URL? Or perhaps I can search the DB using LIKE by breaking up the name?
I’m not claiming this is a ‘best-practice’ or anything, but I’ve
always just put a ‘short_name’ or ‘url_title’ (choose your own column
name as needed) attribute into the database.
I create it behind the scenes in a before_save method, and do
validates_uniqueness_of on it.
That way it’s safe to use as a unique URL, and you can quickly do
“find_by_short_name” to retrieve the instance you’re looking for.
Hopefully others have better ideas, because it’s always seemed a
little hackish to me, despite being very little code.
–Wilson.
I like the idea – it doesn’t sound like too bad of a hack, and is a
definite solution to my question. Thanks a lot for your help, I’ll post
back if I hear or a better way.
-e