PublicUid

Generates random string (or random number) to represent public unique record identifier.

public_uid vs record.id

Let say you're building social network or business dashboard.

If you publicly display your record ids as an unique identificator for accessing your records (as a part of HTML url or in JSON) it's easy to estimate how many records (users, clients, messages, orders,...) you have in the database. Marketing of rival companies may use this information against you.

This is bad:

http://www.eq8.eu/orders/12/edit
http://www.eq8.eu/orders/12-order-for-mouse-and-keyboard/edit

However if you generate random unique identifier and use that as a public identifier, you won't have to worry about that.

This is how it should be:

http://www.eq8.eu/orders/8395820/edit
http://www.eq8.eu/orders/8395820-order-for-mouse-and-keyboard/edit
http://www.eq8.eu/orders/abaoeule/edit
http://www.eq8.eu/orders/aZc3/edit

So keep record.id for your internal relationships and show public_id to the world 😄

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'public_uid'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Usage

Step 1 - db column

Create database column for public unique ID.

class AddPublicUidToUsers < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    add_column :users, :public_uid, :string
    add_index  :users, :public_uid, unique: true
  end
end

or if you are creating table

class CreateEntries < ActiveRecord::Migration[7.1]
  def change
    create_table :entries do |t|
      # ...
      t.string :public_uid, index: { unique: true }
      # ...
    end
  end
end

Step 2a - Using Rails concern

a.k.a - the easy way for Rails (availible since version 2.1.0)

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  include PublicUid::ModelConcern
end

Example:

user = User.create
user.public_uid
# => "xxxxxxxx"

user.to_param
# => "xxxxxxxx"

User.find_puid('xxxxxxxx')
# => <#User ...>
User.find_puid('not_existing')
# => nil

User.find_puid!('xxxxxxxx')
# => <#User ...>
User.find_puid!('not_existing')
# PublicUid::RecordNotFound (User 'not_existing' not found)

This will automatically:

• assumes your model has public_uid column and generate public_uid value for you
• will automatically tell model to use public_uid as to_param method ffectively turning user.public_uid the attribute passed in routes when you do routes (instead of id). Example user_path(@user) => /users/xxxxxxx
• provides User.find_puid('xxxxxx') and User.find_puid!('xxxxxx') class methods as more convenient replacement for find_by!(public_uid: 'xxxxxxx') to find records in controllers.
• User.find_puid!('xxxxxx') will raise PublicUid::RecordNotFound instead of ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound for more accurate error handling in Rails controller (check Rails rescue_from for inspiration)

more info check > source

If you need more customization please follow Step 2b instead

Step 2b - Using manual generate method

a.k.a bit harder than 2.a but more flexible way for Rails

Tell your model to generate the public identifier

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  generate_public_uid
end

This will automatically generate unique 8 char downcase string for column public_uid.

u = User.new
u.public_uid  #=> nil
u.save!       #=> true
u.public_uid  #=> "aeuhsthi"

Then you can do more clever things like having urls based on public_uid and title (http://blog.teamtreehouse.com/creating-vanity-urls-in-rails)

# app/models/user.rb
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  generate_public_uid

  def self.find_puid(param)
    find_by! public_uid: param.split('-').first
  end
  
  def to_param
    "#{public_uid}-#{tile.gsub(/\s/,'-')}"
  end
end
 
# app/controllers/users_controller.rb
class UsersController < ActionController::Base
  # ...
  def show
    @user = User.find_puid(param[:id])
    # ...
  end
  # ...
end

If you want to use different column just specify column option:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  generate_public_uid column: :guid
end

u = User.new
u.guid  #=> nil
u.save! #=> true
u.guid  #=> "troxuroh"

If you want to generate random Integer you can use built-in number generator:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  generate_public_uid generator: PublicUid::Generators::NumberRandom.new
end

u = User.new
u.public_uid  #=> nil
u.save!       #=> true
u.public_uid  #=> 4567123

Note Warning PostgreSQL have built in type safety meaning that this generator wont work if your public uniq ID column is a String (as the gem would try to set Integer on a String). If you really want a number like string you can specify number range for Range String Generator

If you want to generate random Integer using SecureRandom ruby library you can use built-in number secure generator:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  generate_public_uid generator: PublicUid::Generators::NumberSecureRandom.new
end

u = User.new
u.public_uid  #=> nil
u.save!       #=> true
u.public_uid  #=> 4567123

If you want to generate random Hexadecimal String using SecureRandom ruby library you can use built-in hexadecimal string secure generator:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  generate_public_uid generator: PublicUid::Generators::HexStringSecureRandom.new
end

u = User.new
u.public_uid  #=> nil
u.save!       #=> true
u.public_uid  #=> 0b30ffbc7de3b362

Customizing generated string

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  UID_RANGE = ('a'..'z').to_a + ('A'..'Z').to_a + ('0'..'9').to_a
  generate_public_uid generator: PublicUid::Generators::RangeString.new(4, UID_RANGE)
end

or in case you are using SecureRandom ruby library:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  generate_public_uid generator: PublicUid::Generators::HexStringSecureRandom.new(4)  #4 is length of hexadecimal string. If this argument is not set, length of hexadecimal string will be 8 characters. 
end

u = User.new
u.public_uid  #=> nil
u.save!       #=> true
u.public_uid  #=> "aZ3e"

To generate number format String you can specify number range

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  UID_RANGE = ('1'..'9').to_a
  generate_public_uid generator: PublicUid::Generators::RangeString.new(4, UID_RANGE)
end

# User.create.public_uid  == "1234"

Customizing randomized number

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  UID_RANGE = 1_000..4_000
  generate_public_uid generator: PublicUid::Generators::NumberRandom.new(UID_RANGE)
end

or in case you are using SecureRandom ruby library:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  UID_RANGE = 1_000..4_000
  generate_public_uid generator: PublicUid::Generators::NumberSecureRandom.new(UID_RANGE)
end

u = User.new
u.public_uid  #=> nil
u.save!       #=> true
u.public_uid  #=> 2398

Rails rake task

By using this gem you will automatically gain rake task rake public_uid:generate in your Rails application which will generate public_uid on the tables using public_uid on records where public_uid == nil.

This is helpfull to generate public_uid on pre-existing recrods.

rake public_uid:generate

Model EntityApplication: generating public_uids for missing records
  * generating 0 public_uid(s)

Model ValidationFormField: generating public_uids for missing records
  * generating 133 public_uid(s)

Model ValidationType: generating public_uids for missing records
  * generating 0 public_uid(s)

Alternatives

There is a lot of reasons behind the existance of this gem, we are fully aware there are "built" in alternatives it's just they don't quite fit the purpouse of Developer to chose char range himself.

Anyway if you hate our guts for writing this gem try something like:

UUID

class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
 before_create :generate_random_id

 private 
 def generate_random_id
   self.id = SecureRandom.uuid
 end 
end

Or if you are using Rails >= 4 and PostgreSQL, you can have it generating them for you :

create_table :posts, id: :uuid do |t|
  ...
end

• Source

SecureRandom.random_number

class MyModel < ActiveRecord::Base
  before_create :randomize_id
  
  private
  def randomize_id
    begin
      self.id = SecureRandom.random_number(1_000_000)
    end while Model.where(id: self.id).exists?
  end
end

Or you can use SecureRandom.hex

In future gem version we will actually introduce this two generators.

• Source

Contributing

1. Fork it
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
5. Create new Pull Request

Changelog

2019-11-29

Version 2.0.0 released

Till version public_uid 1.3.1 gem used orm_adapter which mean that you could use ActiveRecord or any other data mapping adapter (e.g. Mongoid) supported by orm adapter.

Problem is that orm_adapter is not maintained for 6 years now and cause some gem conflicts with latest ActiveRecord development environment. That's why I've decided to remove the ORM adapter (commit) and use ActiveRecord::Base directly.

That means any Rails application using public_uid gem ActiveRecord will not be affected by the 2.0 release. If anyone want to see public_uid v 2.0 to support other data mappers (e.g. mongo) please open an issue or create PR with the fix.

Sorry for any inconvenience

2022-11-03

Version 2.2.0 released

model.dup will now not copy the public_uid value (same as model.id )

more: #21