How to Give Custom Names to Nested Routes in Rails

Описание: Learn how to create `custom named routes` in your Ruby on Rails application, enhancing user experience and improving SEO-friendly URLs for nested resources.
---
This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/71529507/ asked by the user 'Lordkaito' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/15834720/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/71543708/ provided by the user 'Scott Davies' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/7550114/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

Visit these links for original content and any more details, such as alternate solutions, latest updates/developments on topic, comments, revision history etc. For example, the original title of the Question was: How to give custom names to nested routes in rails

Also, Content (except music) licensed under CC BY-SA https://meta.stackexchange.com/help/l...
The original Question post is licensed under the 'CC BY-SA 4.0' ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... ) license, and the original Answer post is licensed under the 'CC BY-SA 4.0' ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... ) license.

If anything seems off to you, please feel free to write me at vlogize [AT] gmail [DOT] com.
---
How to Give Custom Names to Nested Routes in Rails

Creating user-friendly and meaningful URLs in your Ruby on Rails application is essential for both user experience and SEO optimization. However, sometimes developers find themselves stuck, trying to figure out how to customize nested routes so they are more descriptive and intuitive. If you face the challenge of transforming generic route URLs into more meaningful ones, like changing /users/:id/groups/:id into /users/username/groups/groupname, this guide will help you achieve that.

Understanding the Problem

In your application, you need to pass usernames and group names instead of IDs in your routes. While you have successfully set up a route that identifies users using their usernames with the to_param method in your user model, the issue arises when nesting routes for groups. The default behavior of Rails leads the generated routes back to using IDs instead of the customized names.

Example Before Customization

Before customization, your routes look something like this:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

What you want instead is a more descriptive URL like:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Proposed Solution

To accomplish this transformation in your Rails application, you'll leverage the :param option available from Rails 5 onwards. This allows you to specify custom identifiers for your resources.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Update Your Routes File: You need to modify the routes.rb file in your Rails application to use :param for both users and groups. Below is how your updated routes should look:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Implement to_param in Models: Ensure that your to_param method is correctly implemented in both the User and Group models. This method should return the username and group name, respectively.

In your User model, it should look like this:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

In your Group model, it should similarly return the group name:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Testing Your Routes: After making these changes, run your Rails server and test the new routes. You should now be able to access both the users and groups with their custom names instead of IDs. For example:

Accessing a user: localhost:3000/users/username

Accessing a group: localhost:3000/users/username/groups/groupname

Conclusion

By following these steps, you can create a more intuitive and user-friendly routing structure in your Ruby on Rails application. Not only do descriptive URLs improve the overall user experience, but they also provide better SEO benefits. Implement custom names for your nested routes using the :param option and the to_param method, and you will see significant improvements in your application’s usability.

Remember to always test your routes after making changes to ensure everything functions as expected. Happy coding!