Added Inflector#parameterize for easy slug generation ("Donald E. Knuth".parameterize => "donald-e-knuth") #713 [Matt Darby]

5 files changed, 51 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/activesupport/CHANGELOG b/activesupport/CHANGELOG
index 604462c706..b38a5061d5 100644
--- a/activesupport/CHANGELOG
+++ b/activesupport/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 *Edge*
 
+* Added Inflector#parameterize for easy slug generation ("Donald E. Knuth".parameterize => "donald-e-knuth") #713 [Matt Darby]
+
 * Changed cache benchmarking to be reported in milliseconds [DHH]
 
 * Fix Ruby's Time marshaling bug in pre-1.9 versions of Ruby: utc instances are now correctly unmarshaled with a utc zone instead of the system local zone [#900 state:resolved] [Luca Guidi, Geoff Buesing]
diff --git a/activesupport/lib/active_support/core_ext/string/inflections.rb b/activesupport/lib/active_support/core_ext/string/inflections.rb
index 3bbad7dad8..de99fe5791 100644
--- a/activesupport/lib/active_support/core_ext/string/inflections.rb
+++ b/activesupport/lib/active_support/core_ext/string/inflections.rb
@@ -87,6 +87,25 @@ module ActiveSupport #:nodoc:
           Inflector.demodulize(self)
         end
 
+        # Replaces special characters in a string so that it may be used as part of a 'pretty' URL.
+        # 
+        # ==== Examples
+        #
+        #   class Person
+        #     def to_param
+        #       "#{id}-#{name.parameterize}"
+        #     end
+        #   end
+        # 
+        #   @person = Person.find(1)
+        #   # => #<Person id: 1, name: "Donald E. Knuth">
+        # 
+        #   <%= link_to(@person.name, person_path %>
+        #   # => <a href="/person/1-donald-e-knuth">Donald E. Knuth</a>
+        def parameterize
+          Inflector.parameterize(self)
+        end
+
         # Creates the name of a table like Rails does for models to table names. This method
         # uses the +pluralize+ method on the last word in the string.
         #
diff --git a/activesupport/lib/active_support/inflector.rb b/activesupport/lib/active_support/inflector.rb
index 7ae9e0c6ab..e5f0063285 100644
--- a/activesupport/lib/active_support/inflector.rb
+++ b/activesupport/lib/active_support/inflector.rb
@@ -240,6 +240,25 @@ module ActiveSupport
     def demodulize(class_name_in_module)
       class_name_in_module.to_s.gsub(/^.*::/, '')
     end
+    
+    # Replaces special characters in a string so that it may be used as part of a 'pretty' URL.
+    # 
+    # ==== Examples
+    #
+    #   class Person
+    #     def to_param
+    #       "#{id}-#{name.parameterize}"
+    #     end
+    #   end
+    # 
+    #   @person = Person.find(1)
+    #   # => #<Person id: 1, name: "Donald E. Knuth">
+    # 
+    #   <%= link_to(@person.name, person_path %>
+    #   # => <a href="/person/1-donald-e-knuth">Donald E. Knuth</a>
+    def parameterize(string, sep = '-')
+      string.gsub(/[^a-z0-9]+/i, sep).downcase
+    end
 
     # Create the name of a table like Rails does for models to table names. This method
     # uses the +pluralize+ method on the last word in the string.
diff --git a/activesupport/test/inflector_test.rb b/activesupport/test/inflector_test.rb
index 8eebe1be25..f304844e82 100644
--- a/activesupport/test/inflector_test.rb
+++ b/activesupport/test/inflector_test.rb
@@ -98,6 +98,12 @@ class InflectorTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
     end
   end
 
+  def test_parameterize
+    StringToParameterized.each do |some_string, parameterized_string|
+      assert_equal(parameterized_string, ActiveSupport::Inflector.parameterize(some_string))
+    end
+  end
+
   def test_classify
     ClassNameToTableName.each do |class_name, table_name|
       assert_equal(class_name, ActiveSupport::Inflector.classify(table_name))
diff --git a/activesupport/test/inflector_test_cases.rb b/activesupport/test/inflector_test_cases.rb
index a9dd83a389..d399c90385 100644
--- a/activesupport/test/inflector_test_cases.rb
+++ b/activesupport/test/inflector_test_cases.rb
@@ -142,6 +142,11 @@ module InflectorTestCases
     "NodeChild"        => "node_children"
   }
 
+  StringToParameterized = {
+    "Donald E. Knuth"                     => "donald-e-knuth",
+    "Random text with *(bad)* characters" => "random-text-with-bad-characters"
+  }
+
   UnderscoreToHuman = {
     "employee_salary" => "Employee salary",
     "employee_id"     => "Employee",