Use a random string as id in Ruby on Rails?

Question

I want to create a web app similar to http://www.pastebin.com/ in Ruby on Rails. pastebin.com uses a random string to identify an item. Ruby on Rails uses an auto-incrementing n

Answer 1

Use a guaranteed random string generator, base64 encode it and then shorten it to something acceptable (8 characters?)

require 'uuidtools'
require 'base64'
uid = UUIDTools::UUID.random_create
Base64.encode64(uid)[0..7]
=> "Y2I2ZTQ5"

In Rails you would alter your routes to load based on a :slug column, and set this value using something like this:

before_create do
  self.slug = Base64.encode64(UUIDTools::UUID.random_create)[0..8]
end