# Simplifying RESTful urls **URL:** \ **Category:** rubyonrails-talk\ **Created:** [August 20, 2007, 9:54am UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/simplifying-restful-urls/17197 "2007-08-20T09:54:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DAZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/87869e/32.png) [@DAZ](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/DAZ)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2007, 9:54am UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/simplifying-restful-urls/17197/1 "2007-08-20T09:54:27Z")
Hi, If I am making an application that has a programmes model which has many episodes, and use nested resourses like so: map.resources :programmes do |programmes|   programmes.resources :episodes end This then produces urls like so: /programmes/4/episodes/5 If I then use permalins, I can get them to look like this: /programmes/simpsons/episodes/bart-the-general Is there any way of removing the references to the models in the url? So the url would look like: /simpsons/bart-the-general Thanks, DAZ ---
**Author:** ![Jeremy\_McAnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c89c15/32.png) [@Jeremy\_McAnally](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/Jeremy_McAnally)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2007, 3:03pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/simplifying-restful-urls/17197/2 "2007-08-20T15:03:23Z")
Don't use the built-in RESTful routing. 🙂 Or define your own custom routes: map.connect ':show\_name/:episode\_id', :controller =\> 'episodes', :action =\> 'show' I'm not sure that's a valid route, but it would look something like that. In theory, that would minimize the amount of code you'd need to change in your controllers. --Jeremy ---
**Author:** ![David\_A\_Black1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@David\_A\_Black1](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/David_A_Black1)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2007, 3:12pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/simplifying-restful-urls/17197/3 "2007-08-20T15:12:56Z")
Hi -- > > Hi, If I am making an application that has a programmes model which has many episodes, and use nested resourses like so: > > > > map.resources :programmes do |programmes|   programmes.resources :episodes end > > > > This then produces urls like so: > > > > /programmes/4/episodes/5 > > > > If I then use permalins, I can get them to look like this: > > > > /programmes/simpsons/episodes/bart-the-general > > > > Is there any way of removing the references to the models in the url? So the url would look like: > > > > /simpsons/bart-the-general > > Don't use the built-in RESTful routing. 🙂 Or define your own custom routes: > > map.connect ':show\_name/:episode\_id', :controller =\> 'episodes', :action =\> 'show' > > I'm not sure that's a valid route, but it would look something like that. In theory, that would minimize the amount of code you'd need to change in your controllers. It's valid route, but it's a bit "greedy", in the sense that if you also had:    map.connect ':actor\_name/:movie\_id' or something, you'd have two ':wildcard/:wildcard' routes, of which the first to be defined would "win" for all 'x/y' URLs. This may or may not become a problem in a given application, but I've found that it does tend to become one 🙂 You could tweak it with regex matching for the various wildcards, if that's appropriate. David ---
**Author:** ![AndyV1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5fc32e/32.png) [@AndyV1](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/AndyV1)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2007, 3:59pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/simplifying-restful-urls/17197/4 "2007-08-20T15:59:06Z")
Not only that, but the routes that include the resource names might be very handy with respect to SEO. That is, you might get higher on a list for someone searching for a "Simpsons episode..." if your url includes both. If using the name, rather than the id, is something that you can commit to as a universal design decision for your urls then there's a pretty easy way to make the pretty urls without changing the routing. ActiveRecord objects make use of the 'to\_param' method when they are used as parameters to a method call. By default they return the record id. That's why the call: episode\_path(@simpsons, @bart\_the\_general) comes out like /programmes/4/episodes/5 If you simply override the method then you can use the same routing but the names instead: class Programme   ...   def to\_param     self.name.dasherize   end end class Episode   ...   def to\_param     self.name.dasherize   end end (Having written that twice I see a refactoring coming on... 🙂 Now your call to episode\_path should produce: /programmes/simpsons/episode/bart-the-general The remaining work to be done is to update your controllers, making them capable of finding the objects based on the dasherized name. HTH, AndyV ---
**Author:** ![11175](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/8edcca/32.png) [@11175](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/11175)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 9:38am UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/simplifying-restful-urls/17197/5 "2008-02-11T09:38:49Z")
I m looking for the same... ---
**Author:** ![11175](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/8edcca/32.png) [@11175](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/11175)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 9:40am UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/simplifying-restful-urls/17197/6 "2008-02-11T09:40:22Z")
Naresh Rana wrote: > I m looking for the same... /domain/action/id/title i want to make my url look likie this, /domain/action/title