Having a period (.) in url throws Model.nil error

Question

Using Rails, I have a model "User", for which the action "Show" routes to users/:name. Usually it works fine, except that when there's a period (.) in the name, the server can no longer find the record. For example, http/localhost:3000/Joe%20Jr..

How can I fix this?

routes.rb:

get 'users/:name', to: "users#show", as: 'user'
get 'users/:id/edit', to: "users#edit", as: "edit_user"
resources :users

users_controller.rb:

def create
  #...
  redirect_to user_path
end

Check out this answer: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5369654/why-do-routes-with-a-dot-in-a-parameter-fail-to-match — NM Pennypacker, Apr 13 '15 at 20:32

Rob Olendorf · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-13T20:42:26.093

3

Try your route as

get 'users/:name', to: 'user#show', as: 'user', constraints: { name: /.*/ }

This got us around the same problem.

Credit to Avdi Grimm's blog post "Rails 3 resource routes with dots; or, how to make a Ruby developer go a little bit insane".

edited Apr 13 '15 at 20:42

answered Apr 13 '15 at 20:34

Rob Olendorf

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a small typo in the constraint there, should be `name` right instead of `fname` – Oliver Nicolaas Ponder Apr 13 '15 at 20:38
Oliver, your right. I copied from our code without a close check. Should be fixed. – Rob Olendorf Apr 13 '15 at 20:42
With this code, 'users/:name' works, but now 'users/:id/edit' is returning a "record not found" error. Any idea why, or how I can fix that? I added that route to my question. – Joe Morano Apr 13 '15 at 20:47
Wait a second, the error is actually coming from Users#show! Why would Users#edit suddenly be using code from Users#show? – Joe Morano Apr 13 '15 at 20:51
Might help to see more code, but in your using :id and not :name in the edit route. – Rob Olendorf Apr 13 '15 at 21:03
@RobOlendorf Is there a way I can use :id for edit and :name for show? – Joe Morano Apr 13 '15 at 21:07
Should be able to do that in your controller, something like User.find(params[:id]), but I would strongly recommend consistency for your long term sanity. – Rob Olendorf Apr 13 '15 at 21:10

Having a period (.) in url throws Model.nil error

1 Answers1