Custom routes in rails

Question

I have a users controller.

For a specific user I want to have something like this

 example.com/a_constant_string ==> example.com/users/2

I just need for a specific user, not for all users. You can say

link_to 'Go to a specific user', @user
link_to 'Go to a specific user', user_path(@user)
link_to 'Go to a specific user', a_constant_string_path

Should be same.

Answer 1

This would work too:

match '/a_constant_string', {controller: 'users', id: 2}

with the added benefit (IMO) of not sending a browser redirect.

Answer 2

You could create a redirect route in config/routes.rb:

match '/a_constant_string', :to => redirect("/users/2")

Which would redirect to the correct path, and gives you the URL and PATH helpers: a_constant_string_path and a_constant_string_url.