Slugify via helper or store slug on database?

Question

I have a simple question: Slugify via helper or store the slug on database?

I mean, let's suppose that I have Guilherme Oderdenge on database and I want to transform it into a human-readable URL such as http://myapp.com/guilherme-oderdenge/, what's the best way to perform this? Storing guilherme-oderdenge in the database or transforming Guilherme Oderdenge in a slug with a helper like user.name.slugify?

I know there are some ways to reach the expected result, but which one is better? Or at least there is a better way?

It depends of the technology that you're using

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I'm using Ruby On Rails with MySQL.

@gnat its what they call making a human readable but still valid URLs. So instead of a url like "/article/blog?id=3534546", it'd be "/article/gnats_blog" — GrandmasterB, Mar 06 '14 at 17:13

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 06 '14 at 15:24

I would store the slug in the database, this gives you the flexibility of being able to customize your slug if the logic to create a slug didn't create a desirable slug.

Also, if you had 2 pages with the same name, you would want to have two different slugs as they probably should be unique.

Thirdly this represents a good separation of concerns, the database if for querying data, not creating content.

Just to clarify, I recommend you create the slug in your app code, and store that in the db.

Perfect explanation and you convinced me. Thank you, that's enough for now. — Guilherme Oderdenge, Mar 06 '14 at 16:25

Slugify via helper or store slug on database?

It depends of the technology that you're using

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