Question

Possible Duplicate:
Ruby on Rails Callback, what is difference between :before_save and :before_create?

I’m looking to replace Ruby on Rails current id from /1, /2, /3, etc to a randomly generated URL, for example /csd8dsv68dvs.

After looking into creating it, I found this in the post model

before_create { self.code = SecureRandom.hex(5) }

What does the before_create do and how can I implement the random id?

Update

It seems I got one part wrong. I’m not looking to change the ID, I just want to change the URL to a random string that a user won’t be able to guess.

Answer 1

A great gem to help you with alternatives to a resource :id as the identfier through a route is friendly_id. There is even a RailsCast on it.

before_create is an ActiveRecord callback and is well explained both here on SO (as others have commented) and in the API.

If you chose to use the raw

before_create { self.code = SecureRandom.hex(5) }

You could modify your controller action to find the resource using this code instead of the id.

def some_action
  @resource = ModelClass.find_by_code!(params[:id])
end

You’d pass the :code attribute to routes for the resource in your views

resource_path(@resource.code)

where resource_path is the route method for your resource.