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Laravel HashSlug (Hashids)

This package is useful to hide real model ids in urls using Hashids. A hashid (slug) is deterministically generated given an application, a model class and an id. Also, given a hashid (slug), the real id can be decoded. Thus no extra field needs to be stored in the database, ids are decoded on each request.

Generates urls on the fly

database -> id (1) -> hashslug (K4Nkd) -> url (http://localhost/posts/K4Nkd)

Decodes hashids and finds models on the fly

url (http://localhost/posts/K4Nkd) -> hashslug (K4Nkd) -> id (1) -> database -> model

Hashslugs have the following properties:

1. It is guaranteed that hashslugs are unique per id
2. It is guaranteed that for different models, different series of hashslugs are generated (a post of id 1 will have a different hashslug as a comment with id 1)
3. It is guaranteed that for different installations, different series of hashslugs are generated (depending on app key in the .env file)

It is important to note that hashids are not random, nor unpredictable. Do not use this package if that's a concern. Quoting from hashids.org:

Do you have a question or comment that involves "security" and "hashids" in the same sentence? Don't use Hashids.

However, although hashslug encoding depends on the app key, it cannot be exposed by an attacker, since it's sha256 hashed before passing it to Hashids. Your app key is safe.

Installation

composer require balping/laravel-hashslug

Versions

Note: This package requires either the BC Math or GMP extension in order to work.

Usage

Include trait on a model that you wish to have hashid slugs to hide numeric incremental ids.

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Balping\HashSlug\HasHashSlug;

class Post extends Model {
    use HasHashSlug;
}

After this, functions slug(), findBySlug($slug) and findBySlugOrFail($slug) are added to your model.

Every time you generate a url using Laravel's helpers, instead of numeric ids, hashids are used (with the default length of 5 characters):

// routes/web.php
Route::resource('/posts', 'PostController');

// somewhere else
$post = Post::first();
echo action('PostController@show', $post);
// prints http://localhost/posts/K4Nkd

Then you can resolve the model by the slug.

// app/Http/Controllers/PostController.php

public function show($slug){
    $post = Post:findBySlugOrFail($slug);
  
    return view('post.show', compact('post'));
}

You can use implicit model binding too. You don't have to do anything, it works automatically!

Just typehint models and they are automatically resolved:

// routes/web.php
Route::resource('/posts', 'PostController');

// app/Http/Controllers/PostController.php
public function show(Post $post){
    return view('post.show', compact('post'));
}

If you need explicit model binding, that's also convenient:

//app/Providers/RouteServiceProvider.php
public function boot(){
    parent::boot();

    Route::model('article', App\Post::class);
}

// routes/web.php
Route::resource('/articles', 'PostController');

// app/Http/Controllers/PostController.php
public function show(Post $post){
    return view('post.show', compact('post'));
}

Customisation

Salts

The uniqueness of hashslug series per model and app installation depends on having unique salts.

By default, the salt passed to Hashids depends on the app key defined in .env and the class name of the model.

Application salt

To change the 'application salt', create file config/hashslug.php then add the following code:

<?php

return [
    'appsalt' => 'your-application-salt'
];

Keep in mind that you don't have to configure this, but unless you do and your app key is changed, every url having hashslugs in it will change. This might be a problem for example if a user bookmarked such a url.

Model salt

To use a custom model salt instead of the classname:

class Post extends Model {
    use HasHashSlug;

    protected static $modelSalt = "posts";
}

This might be a good idea to do, if you have several extended classes of the same model and you need hashslugs to be consistent.

Padding

Change the minimum length of a slug (default: 5)

class Post extends Model {
    use HasHashSlug;

    protected static $minSlugLength = 10;
}

You can set the minimum length of a slug globally too, by adding the following line to config/hashslug.php:

    'minSlugLength' => 10

Alphabet

The default alphabet is abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890

This can be changed:

class Post extends Model {
    use HasHashSlug;

    protected static $alphabet = 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ';
}

You can set the alphabet globally too, by adding the following line to config/hashslug.php:

    'alphabet' => 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ'

Similar packages and how is this one different

Laravel Hashids

Provides a facade, but no built-in routing. Allows multiple salts through "connections". Unnecessary overhead if you need hashids only for slugging models.

Laravel-Hashid

Provides a facade, similar to the above one PLUS a trait similar to this package. No no built-in routing. No tests provided. Unnecessary overhead if you need hashids only for slugging models.

Hashids for Laravel 5

Facade only. Not as good as the first one, since it allows you to have only one salt.

Optimus

Uses different obfuscation method. Facade (and class) only. Nothing related to routing or model traits. It is said to be faster than hashids.

Laravel FakeID

Simliar to this package, but built on Optimus. Facade and trait provided, as well as a special route function. Good tests.

License

This package (the trait and the test file) is licensed under GPLv3.