url-slug

What is url-slug?

The url-slug npm package is a utility for converting strings into URL-friendly slugs. It provides a simple and efficient way to generate slugs from text, which can be useful for creating SEO-friendly URLs, filenames, and more.

What are url-slug's main functionalities?

Basic Slug Generation

This feature allows you to convert a string into a URL-friendly slug. Special characters are removed, and spaces are replaced with hyphens.

const urlSlug = require('url-slug');
const slug = urlSlug('Hello World!');
console.log(slug); // Output: 'hello-world'

Custom Separator

You can customize the separator used in the slug. In this example, an underscore is used instead of the default hyphen.

const urlSlug = require('url-slug');
const slug = urlSlug('Hello World!', { separator: '_' });
console.log(slug); // Output: 'hello_world'

Transform Function

This feature allows you to apply a custom transformation function to the string before generating the slug. The example uses a built-in transformer to convert the string to lowercase.

const urlSlug = require('url-slug');
const slug = urlSlug('Hello World!', { transformer: urlSlug.LOWERCASE_TRANSFORMER });
console.log(slug); // Output: 'hello-world'

Custom Transform Function

You can define your own transformation function to customize how the string is processed before generating the slug. In this example, the string is converted to uppercase.

const urlSlug = require('url-slug');
const customTransformer = (str) => str.toUpperCase();
const slug = urlSlug('Hello World!', { transformer: customTransformer });
console.log(slug); // Output: 'HELLO-WORLD'

Other packages similar to url-slug

slugify

The slugify package is another popular utility for generating URL-friendly slugs. It offers similar functionality to url-slug, including custom separators and transformation options. However, slugify is more widely used and has more contributors, which may result in better support and more frequent updates.

speakingurl

The speakingurl package provides advanced options for generating slugs, including transliteration of non-Latin characters and support for multiple languages. It offers more customization options compared to url-slug, making it a good choice for internationalization.

limax

The limax package is designed for generating slugs with a focus on transliteration and Unicode support. It is similar to url-slug but offers more robust handling of non-ASCII characters, making it suitable for applications that require support for multiple languages and character sets.

README

url-slug

RFC 3986 compliant slug generator with multiple language support. It creates slugs safe for use in URL paths, queries and fragments, and can revert them too.

Install

$ npm install --save url-slug

Usage

import urlSlug from 'url-slug'

urlSlug('Sir James Paul McCartney MBE is an English singer-songwriter')
// sir-james-paul-mc-cartney-mbe-is-an-english-singer-songwriter

Documentation

urlSlug(string, [separator], [transformer]), urlSlug.convert(string, [separator], [transformer])

Returns the string value converted to a slug.

string

Type: string

The string that'll be converted.

separator

Type: string

The character used to separate the slug fragments, set to '-' by default. Can be set to '-', '.', '_', '~' or ''.

transformer

Type: function or false

A function that receives the slug fragments and the current separator as arguments. It must return the slug string. Defaults to the built-in transformer urlSlug.transformers.lowercase. It can be set to false if no transformation is desirable.

Example

import urlSlug from 'url-slug'

urlSlug('Comfortably Numb', urlSlug.transformers.uppercase)
// COMFORTABLY-NUMB

urlSlug('á é í ó ú Á É Í Ó Ú ç Ç æ Æ œ Œ ® © € ¥ ª º ¹ ² ½ ¼', '_', false)
// a_e_i_o_u_A_E_I_O_U_c_C_ae_AE_oe_OE_r_c_EU_Y_a_o_1_2_1_2_1_4

urlSlug('Red, red wine, stay close to me…', '', urlSlug.transformers.titlecase)
// RedRedWineStayCloseToMe

urlSlug.revert(slug, [separator], [transformer])

Returns the slug value converted to a human readable string.

slug

Type: string

The slug that'll be reverted.

separator

Type: string or null

The value used to split the slug into fragments, set to null by default. Can be set to null, '-', '.', '_', '~' or ''. If set to null, the split will happen on any valid separator character or camel case occurrences. If set to an empty string, only camel case occurrences will be split.

transformer

Type: function or false

A function that receives the string fragments and the current separator as arguments. Defaults to false, which means that no transformation will be made.

Example

import urlSlug from 'url-slug'

urlSlug.revert('Replace-every_separator.allowed~andSplitCamelCaseToo')
// Replace every separator allowed and Split Camel Case Too

urlSlug.revert(
  'this-title-needs-a-title_case',
  '-',
  urlSlug.transformers.titlecase
)
// This Title Needs A Title_case

urlSlug.UrlSlug([separator], [transformer])

url-slug constructor, useful if you want to create more instances. If separator or transform are set, they will the default values of the instance.

separator

Type: string

Defaults to '-'. Can be set to '-', '.', '_', '~' or ''.

transformer

Type: function or false

Defaults to urlSlug.transformers.lowercase. Can be set to a function or false, if no transformation is desired.

Example

import urlSlug from 'url-slug'

const urlSlugInstance = new urlSlug.UrlSlug('~', urlSlug.transformers.uppercase)

urlSlugInstance.convert('Listen to Fito Páez in Madrid')
// LISTEN~TO~FITO~PAEZ~IN~MADRID

Custom transformers

Custom transformers are expressed by a function which receives two arguments, fragments, an array with the resulting words of the conversion, and separator, the current separator string used to join the words. On revert, the separator will always be a space character (' '). Transformers should always return a string.

Example

import urlSlug from 'url-slug'

urlSlug(
  'O\'Neill is an American surfboard, surfwear and equipment brand',
  fragments => fragments.join('+').toUpperCase()
)
// O+NEILL+IS+AN+AMERICAN+SURFBOARD+SURFWEAR+AND+EQUIPMENT+BRAND

urlSlug.revert(
  'WEIrd_SNAke_CAse',
  '_',
  (fragments, separator) => fragments.map(fragment => (
    fragment.slice(0, -2).toLowerCase() + fragment.slice(-2).toUpperCase()
  )).join(separator)
)
// weiRD snaKE caSE

Built-in transformers

urlSlug.transformers.lowercase

Converts the result to lowercase.

urlSlug.transformers.uppercase

Converts the result to uppercase.

urlSlug.transformers.titlecase

Converts the result to title case.

License

The MIT License