Change AR::Base#to_param to return a String instead of a Fixnum. Closes #5320.

git-svn-id: http://svn-commit.rubyonrails.org/rails/trunk@4459 5ecf4fe2-1ee6-0310-87b1-e25e094e27de

activerecord/CHANGELOG

@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 *SVN*
 
+* Change AR::Base#to_param to return a String instead of a Fixnum. Closes #5320. [Nicholas Seckar]
+
 * Use explicit delegation instead of method aliasing for AR::Base.to_param -> AR::Base.id. #5299 (skaes@web.de)
 
 * Refactored ActiveRecord::Base.to_xml to become a delegate for XmlSerializer, which restores sanity to the mega method. This refactoring also reinstates the opinions that type="string" is redundant and ugly and nil-differentiation is not a concern of serialization [DHH]

activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb

@@ -1410,8 +1410,8 @@ module ActiveRecord #:nodoc:
 
       # Enables Active Record objects to be used as URL parameters in Action Pack automatically.
       def to_param
-        # can't use alias_method here, because method 'id' optimizes itself on the fly
-        id
+        # We can't use alias_method here, because method 'id' optimizes itself on the fly.
+        id.to_s if id # Be sure to stringify the id for routes
       end
 
       def id_before_type_cast #:nodoc:

activerecord/test/base_test.rb

@@ -1317,6 +1317,10 @@ class BasicsTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
     assert_equal '::Person', ActiveRecord::Base.send(:type_name_with_module, '::Person')
   end
   
+  def test_to_param_should_return_string
+    assert_kind_of String, Client.find(:first).to_param
+  end
+
   # FIXME: this test ought to run, but it needs to run sandboxed so that it
   # doesn't b0rk the current test environment by undefing everything.
   #