MuchSlug

Friendly, human-readable identifiers for database records.

Usage

MuchSlug creates derived slug values on database records. Typically this means deriving the slug value from record attributes and syncing/caching that value in a dedicated field on the record.

ActiveRecord

Given a :slug field on a record:

class AddSlugToProjects < ActiveRecord::Migration[6.1]
  def change
    add_column(:projects, :slug, :string, index: { unique: true })
  end
end

Mix-in MuchSlug::ActiveRecord and configure:

class ProjectRecord < ApplicationRecord
  self.table_name = "projects"

  include MuchSlug::ActiveRecord
  has_slug(
    source: -> { "#{id}-#{name}" },
  )

  # ...
end

The record will save slug values as it is saved:

project = ProjectRecord.last
project.id   # => 123
project.name # => "Sprockets 2.0"
project.slug # => nil

# slug values are updated late-bound after record saves
project.save
project.slug # => "123-Sprockets-2-0"

project.name = "Widgets For Me"
project.slug # => "123-Sprockets-2-0"
project.save
project.slug # => "123-Widgets-For-Me"

# new Projects also have their slugs assigned once they are saved
project = Project.new(name: "Do The Things")
project.slug # => nil
project.save!
project.slug # => "124-Do-The-Things"

Notes

Attribute

By default, the record attribute for a slug is "slug". You can override this when configuring slugs:

class ProjectRecord < ApplicationRecord
  self.table_name = "projects"

  include MuchSlug::ActiveRecord
  has_slug(
    source: -> { "#{id}-#{name}" },
  )
  has_slug(
    attribute: :full_slug
    source:    -> { "#{id}-#{full_name}" },
  )

  # ...
end

Preprocessor

By default, MuchSlug doesn't pre-process the slug value source before generating the slug value. You can specify a custom pre-processor by passing any Proc-like object:

class ProjectRecord < ApplicationRecord
  self.table_name = "projects"

  include MuchSlug::ActiveRecord
  has_slug(
    source:       -> { "#{id}-#{name}" },
    preprocessor: :downcase
  )
  has_slug(
    attribute:    :full_slug
    source:       -> { "#{id}-#{full_name}" },
    preprocessor: -> { |source_value| source_value[0..30] }
  )

  # ...
end

Separator

MuchSlug replaces any non-word characters with a separator. This helps make slugs URL-friendly. By default, MuchSlug uses "-" for the separator. You can specify a custom separator value when configuring slugs:

class ProjectRecord < ApplicationRecord
  self.table_name = "projects"

  include MuchSlug::ActiveRecord
  has_slug(
    source:    -> { "#{id}.#{name}" },
    separator: "."
  )

  # ...
end

project = ProjectRecord.last
project.id   # => 123
project.name # => "Sprockets 2.0"
project.save
project.slug # => "123.Sprockets.2.0"

Allowing Underscores

By default, MuchSlug doesn't allow underscores in source values and treats them like non-word characters. This means it replaces underscores with the separator. You can override this to allow underscores when configuring slugs:

class ProjectRecord < ApplicationRecord
  self.table_name = "projects"

  include MuchSlug::ActiveRecord
  has_slug(
    source: -> { "#{id}-#{name}" }
  )
  has_slug(
    attribute:         :full_slug
    source:            -> { "#{id}-#{full_name}" },
    allow_underscores: true

  # ...
end

project = ProjectRecord.last
project.id        # => 123
project.name      # => "SP_2.0"
project.full_name # => "Sprockets_2.0"
project.save
project.slug      # => "123-SP-2-0"
project.full_slug # => "123-Sprockets_2-0"

Manual Slug Updates

Slugs are updated anytime a record is saved with changes that affect the slug. If you want an explicit, intention-revealing way to update the slugs manually, use MuchSlug.update_slugs:

project = ProjectRecord.last
project.id   # => 123
project.name # => "Sprockets 2.0"

MuchSlug.update_slugs(project)
project.slug # => "123-Sprockets-2-0"

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem "much-slug"

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install much-slug

Contributing

Fork it
Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Added some feature')
Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
Create new Pull Request

much-slug

Development

Runtime