Rails RESTful Routes: override params[:id] or params[:model_id] defaults

Answer 1

One method of making the parameters a little more friendly without writing fully custom routes is

# docs_controller.rb
def show
  @doc = Doc.find(params[:doc].to_i)
end

# doc.rb
def to_param
  [ id, permalink ].join("-")
  # assumes you're storing a permalink formatted version of the name of your doc
end

# routes.rb
map.resources :docs

This will give you URLs that look something like example.com/docs/234-the-name-of-your-doc