String Urlize

Extends ruby String class with urlize method which converts string to friendly url. It removes all characters that couldn't be used in url and replaces spaces/underscores with dashes. In addition it transliterate string using I18n library.

gem install string-urlize

In Rails 3, add this to your Gemfile and run the bundle command.

gem "string-urlize"

'my cool string'.urlize # => my-cool-string
:foo_symbol.to_s.urlize # => foo-symbol

Examples:

Transliteration powered by I18n library and enabled by default. So you could provide locale to the urlize method:

'Jürgen'.urlize                 # => "jurgen"
'Jürgen'.urlize(:locale => :de) # => "juergen"

or disable transliteration at all:

'Jürgen'.urlize(:transliterate => false) # => 'jürgen' in ruby 1.9 and 'jrden' in ruby 1.8.7