Slug Based on two values

Question

First off I'm very new to rails and ruby for that matter.

I'm trying to create a slug for custom URLS.

I have a user model with a first_name & last_name. This model also has a slug.

What I am trying to do is get it to check my database to see if there is an instance of the slug to be created eg. see how many Joe Blogs exist. If there is none it gets the url whatever.com/joe-blogs and if there more than 0 it gets the value of the count whatever.com/joe-blogs-COUNT

what I attempted to do when gerating my slug

  def generate_slug
    NoSlug == Users.sum("slug").where(:slug => first_name-last_name.perameterize)
      if NoSlug == 0
        self.slug ||= first_name-last_name.perameterize
      else NoSlug > 0
        self.slug ||= first_name-last_name-NoSlug.perameterize
      end
  end 

I've tried to fix it but with no such luck - Any suggestions or pointers?

Thanks!

Answer 1

I have been using the FriendlyId gem and have been pleased. If you want to combine first name and last name, you could do something like

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  extend FriendlyId
  friendly_id :full_name, use: :slugged

  def full_name
    "#{first_name} #{last_name}"
  end
end

The gem will take care of parameterizing it for you. This RailsCast might also be helpful.