Question

(Note that the examples are a simplification of my use case.)

I have a Model Event and the default route for showing one event:

/events/:id(.:format) ----> activities#show

Now, the event has an attribute named year and I am also already accepting the following route:

/events/:year/:id(.:format) ----> activities#show

As the second variant shall be the default, I want code like redirect_to @event to lead the user to that variant (e.g. http://localhost:3000/events/2012/1).

Where do I define that?

So far, I’ve tried to overwrite to_param in the model like so:

def to_param
  "#{self.year}/#{self.id}"
end

… but that will cause params[:id] to be filled with the string 2012/1 .

I want params[:id] to still be 1 while params[:year] should be 2012.

Does Rails provide a standard way to accomplish this?

… or will I have to write a custom method for the model and call it by issuing something like this: redirect_to @event.custom_method_to_create_long_url_variant

Such a method would be quickly implemented, but if Rails can handle the requirement via a simple setting, it would allow me to leave pretty much all other code untouched.

EDIT:

I found out that my params held the values (:id and :year) as expected when changing the get in the functional test FROM get :show, id: @event TO get :show, id: @event.id.

Now the question is:

Is that just the way to do it or can I still support get :show, id: @event ?

Answer 1

Something, like this:

match "/events(/:year)/:id(.:format) => "activities#show"

and get in your controller

Started GET "/events/2012/12" for 127.0.0.1 at 2012-03-14 17:25:44 +0400
Parameters: {"year"=>"2012", "id"=>"12"}

or without year

Started GET "/events/12" for 127.0.0.1 at 2012-03-14 17:25:44 +0400
Parameters: {"id"=>"12"}

so, you can use in your controller

params[:id]
params[:year]

And url_helper

match "/events(/:year)/:id(.:format) => "activities#show", :as => :my_event

my_event_path(2012, 12) #=> /eventes/2012/12
my_event_path(@event.id) #=> /events/12