Mateus Nava

Mateus Nava

January 16, 2022

Rails Global ID

By Kyle Glenn (unsplash.com)
By Kyle Glenn (unsplash.com)
A Global ID is an identification that uniquely identifies a model instance, very simple to understand. For example (Link is the model):
Link.find(1).to_global_id.to_s # gid://link-share/Link/1

You can find a record by Global ID only:
GlobalID::Locator.locate('gid://link-share/Link/1') # Returns the link id 1 instance

If you need to secure your global id, you can use the Signed Global ID: 
Link.find(1).to_signed_global_id.to_s # BAh7CEkiCGdpZAY6BkVUSSIcZ2lkOi8vbGluay1zaGFyZS9MaW5rLzEGOwBUSSIMcHVycG9zZQY7AFRJIgxkZWZhdWx0BjsAVEkiD2V4cGlyZXNfYXQGOwBUSSIdMjAyMi0wMi0xNlQyMzo1MDo0MC41NjdaBjsAVA==--c4ac4815a3022eebf161ea0be38c6674c4110f7b

To find by Signed Global ID
GlobalID::Locator.locate_signed('BAh7CEkiCGdpZAY6BkVUSSIcZ2lkOi8vbGluay1zaGFyZS9MaW5rLzEGOwBUSSIMcHVycG9zZQY7AFRJIgxkZWZhdWx0Bj
sAVEkiD2V4cGlyZXNfYXQGOwBUSSIdMjAyMi0wMi0xNlQyMzo1MDo0MC41NjdaBjsAVA==--c4ac4815a3022eebf161ea0be38c6674c4110f7b') # Returns the link id 1 instance

Using the global id you can find any model by a simple string (the global id), without even knowing the model's class, very useful in many situations.

References