Question

I have a basic CRUD with “Company” model. To make the company name show up, I did

def to_param
  name.parameterize
end

Then I accessed http://localhost:3000/companies/american-express which runs show action in the companies controller.

Obviously this doesn’t work because the show method is as following:

def show
  @company = Company.find_by_id(params[:id])
end

The params[:id] is american-express. This string is not stored anywhere.

Do I need to store the short string (i.e., “american-express”) in the database when I save the record? Or is there any way to retrieve the company data without saving the string in the database?

Answer 1

Send the ID with the parameterized value;

def to_param
    new_record? ? super : "#{id}-#{name}"
end

And when you collect the data in the show method, you can use the whole parameter;

def show
    @company = Company.find("12-american-express"); // equals to find(12)
end

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