As Gregg mentioned, you can change the name of the parameter using:
resources :amitians, param: :username
But you're essentially just renaming a variable. Whether you expect an id or a username is determined in the controller action amitians#show:
@amitian = Amitian.find(param[:id]) # Treat :id as id
@amitian = Amitian.find_by_username(param[:id]) # Treat :id as username
Now, if you want to specifically route to /:username
rather than /amitians/:username
, you'll have to override that resource route:
resources :amitians, except: [:show] do
member do
get :following, :followers
end
end
get '/:username', to: 'amitians#show'
However, I would recommend against that. Having a parameter directly off root will cause lots of confusion for you when users type in the incorrect url and get a user page instead of a 404 error. Or even worse, what if a user chooses the username 'login' or 'register'? Either your register page would be unreachable or else that user's page would be.
I should also point out that rails convenience methods such as resources
, Amitian.find
, url_for @amitian
, link_to @amitian
etc. all use the REST standard which uses numerical IDs.
If you want to use a username instead of IDs, you'll have to stop relying on these methods and change your controllers and views, in addition to your routes file.