Rails link_to object interpolation with url instead of path

Question

I have two models, say User and Group

I know I can access the show action to each object with the different solutions:

# PATH
link_to user.name, user_path(user)
link_to group.name, group_path(group)

# URL
link_to user.name, user_url(user)
link_to group.name, group_url(group)

But Rails' magic occurs when

# PATH
link_to user.name, user_path(user)
link_to group.name, group_path(group)
# is equivalent to
# PATH
link_to user.name, user
link_to group.name, group

Is there a way I can interpolate to get the url?

I could write something like this:

link_to user.name, send("#{user.class.name.downcase}_url", user)

But is there a cleaner way?

Answer 1

url_for calls polymorphic_path() with the object you pass when you pass in an ActiveRecord (as well as some other cases). you can use polymorphic_url instead to get what you want.

link_to object.name, polymorphic_url(object)

Answer 2

Unfortunately there's no way to tell link_to to use the url when you pass only the model in. You'll have to stick to user_url.

http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionView/Helpers/UrlHelper.html#method-i-link_to