I have List objects which are shown like this:
www.mysite.com/lists/123
Where 123 is the id of the list. What I would like to do is add the title of the list the url so it it more informative(for google or whatever). So I would like it to look like:
www.mysite.com/lists/123/title-of-list-number-123
How do you go about adding to a url like this? If you just enter:
www.mysite.com/lists/123 w/o the title, should it find the title and then redirect to a new route?
If you want to keep your find-calls as they are (by id), you could do the opposite of what mplacona suggested:
def to_param
"#{id}-#{title.parameterize}"
end
With this, your find(params[:id]) will work because it'll convert the string to an integer (can only succeed if the number is in the beginning of the string). So this is will actually work:
List.find("123-my-title")
and will be the same as
List.find(123)
Read more about this and other ways to accomplish this here: http://gregmoreno.ca/how-to-create-google-friendly-urls-in-rails/
The parameterize will automatically convert the string to a "pretty" url. Read more here: http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveSupport/CoreExtensions/String/Inflections.html#M001367
If you want a bit more functionality, I'll suggest friendly_id aswell.
This article says exactly what you need to do accomplish this.
http://railscasts.com/episodes/63-model-name-in-url
UPDATE
Have a permalink added to your model, and save as follow to it:
def to_param
"#{permalink}-#{id}"
end
On your controller, instead of getting things by the id, get them by the pemalink:
@product = Product.find_by_permalink(params[:id])
And that's all you need.
The screen cast explains all the steps on how to do it.
You could also take a look at friendly id, if you're in the mood for a gem/plugin.