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Automatically generate two-word slugs in Ruby on Rails

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                  class Article < ApplicationRecord
  before_validation :generate_slug, on: :create

  validates :slug, presence: true, uniqueness: true

  private

  def generate_slug
    return if slug.present?

    words = title.parameterize.split("-")
    self.slug = "#{words.first(2).join('-')}-#{SecureRandom.alphanumeric(4).downcase}"
  end
end

                  class ArticlesController < ApplicationController
  def show
    @article = Article.find_by!(slug: params[:slug])
  end
end

                  class AddSlugToArticles < ActiveRecord::Migration[7.0]
  def change
    add_column :articles, :slug, :string, null: false, unique: true
    add_index :articles, :slug, unique: true
  end
end

This snippet ensures every article gets a unique, readable slug based on its title, keeping it short and pronounceable. It grabs the first two words of the title and appends a 4-character random string to prevent duplicates. The before_validation callback runs only when creating a new article, and the controller fetches articles by slug instead of an ID—great for SEO!

Martin Sojka

More from Martin Sojka

Automatically generate two-word slugs in Ruby on Rails

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More from Martin Sojka