Use hashids.rb to obfuscate the ActiveRecord ID and save it to the table as the specified attribute and also uses it in URL created by path helpers.

Add the gem to your Gemfile:

gem 'hashids_activerecord', github: 'sajan45/hashids_activerecord'

Add a single line like below, in your model.

class Order < ActiveRecord::Base
  hashid :encrypted_id
end

In above code, encrypted_id is the column name to which you want to save the hashed id. Please make sure that, the column exists for that particular model before using that column for storing hashed id. This gem will not create migration or column for you. You have to create it.

Find a Record:

If you want to find a record by the hashed id, you can easily use the attribute, which used while defining the hashid. For above example:

Order.find_by_encrypted_id("AhXC23m") # if hashed id is 'AhXC23m'

Or if you want to dehash it and find the original id then:

Order.dehash_id("AhXC23m") # => 4 , if the original id was 4

Here dehash_id is a class method, available on every model which uses hashid.

Pass the full object to the path helper and Rails will use the encrypted column name to identify the Record.

order_path(@order)

Here, if @order has hashed id as 'AhXC23m' then it will generate path as order/AhXC23m . Instead of using default id, it will use hashed id in url.

Note : Since it will use hashed id in url, when you are trying to use this id to fetch then you will have to use it like this:

Order.find_by(encrypted_id: params[:encrypted_id])

Considering that the column name is encrypted_id, which stores hashed ids. If you find using find_by more frequently due to this reason, you can override the find method for that specific model like:

(As you may have understood, this is optional. Not mandatory.)

class Order < ActiveRecord::Base
  hashid :encrypted_id

  self.find(*args)
    scope = args.slice!(0)
    options = args.slice!(0) || {}
    if !options[:no_hashed_id]
      if scope.is_a?(Array)
        scope.map! {|a| dehash_id(a).to_i}
      else
        scope = dehash_id(scope)
      end
    end
    super(scope)
  end
end

In this way, calling the normal find method will always decrypt the hashid to normal id first and then it will try to find the object using that id.

Order.find(params[:encrypted_id])

Or if you have object's default id, not the hashed id then use the find method like:

Order.find(4, no_hashed_id: true)

The hashid method will accept some options for better customization:

• hash_salt : You can pass your own hash_salt for more unique hashed result from others, using this plugin. By default, it uses Table name as salt. For example, User model will be hashed with users as salt.

  hashid :encrypted_id, hash_salt: 'my custom salt'

• min_length : You can use this option to configure, how many minimum characters you want in the hashed id.

  hashid :encrypted_id, min_length: 5

• alphabets : Use this option when you want to control the characters in hashed id.

  hashid :encrypted_id, alphabets: "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890"

  Using the above code, will generate hashed id consisting of only Capital alphabets and numbers. Default alphabets are "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz1234567890"

This is not a plain Ruby Gem. It is a Rails plugin, which extends ActiveRecord. So it should be only used with Rails.