(Swift)FriendlyId

Inspired and compatible with FriendlyID

What is the FriendlyId library?

The FriendlyId library converts a given UUID (with 36 characters) to a URL-friendly ID (a "FriendlyId") which is based on Base62 (with a maximum of 22 characters), as in the example below:

UUID                                        Friendly ID

c3587ec5-0976-497f-8374-61e0c2ea3da5   ->   5wbwf6yUxVBcr48AMbz9cb
|                                           |                              
36 characters                               22 characters or less

In addition, this library allows to:

convert from a FriendlyId back to the original UUID; and
create a new, random FriendlyId

Why use a FriendlyId?

Universal Unique IDs (UUIDs) provide a non-sequential and unique identifier that can be generated separately from the source database. As a result, it is not possible to guess either the previous or next identifier. That's great, but, to achieve this level of security, a UUID is long (128 bits long) and looks ugly (36 alphanumeric characters including four hyphens which are added to make it easier to read the UUID), as in this example: 123e4567-e89b-12d3-a456-426655440000.

Such a format is:

difficult to read (especially if it is part of a URL)
difficult to remember
cannot be copied with just two mouse-clicks (you have to select manually the start and end positions)
can easily become broken across lines when it is copied, pasted, edited, or sent.

(Swift)FriendlyId library solves these problems by converting a given UUID using Base62 with alphanumeric characters in the range [0-9A-Za-z] into a FriendlyId which consists of a maximum of 22 characters (but in fact often contains fewer characters).

Usage

Command Line

The Swift package contains a command line for generating and converting to & from UUID format.

Generate a new id (from a random v4 UUID)

$ friendly-id

Convert a UUID into a "FriendlyId"

$ friendly-id 921bcf08-1279-4e0a-9e0d-e5a1103c5def

Convert a FriendlyId into a UUID

$ friendly-id 4RhaTeTKMOdHxagaj2XAcR

Swift Package

FriendlyId can also be integrated into your Swift projects using Swift Package Manager.

Swift Package Manager dependency

.package(url: "https://github.com/kdubb/SwiftFriendlyId.git", .upToNextMinor(from: "1.0.0")),

Generate a FriendlyId

let id = Id(algorithm: .random)

Convert UUID to FriendlyId

let id = Id(uuid: UUID(uuidString: "921bcf08-1279-4e0a-9e0d-e5a1103c5def")!)

Convert FriendlyId (or UUID) formatted string to UUID

let id = Id(string: "4RhaTeTKMOdHxagaj2XAcR")!
let id = Id(string: "921bcf08-1279-4e0a-9e0d-e5a1103c5def")!