permalink.rb

# Methods to parse permalinks from strings

## Method 1
require 'iconv'
class String
  def to_permalink
      (Iconv.new('US-ASCII//TRANSLIT', 'utf-8').iconv self).gsub(/[^\w\s\-\—]/,'').gsub(/[^\w]|[\_]/,' ').split.join('-').downcase  
  end
end

## Method 2
require 'unicode'
class String
  def to_permalink
    str = Unicode.normalize_KD(self).gsub(/[^\x00-\x7F]/n,'')
    str = str.gsub(/[^-_\s\w]/, ' ').downcase.squeeze(' ').tr(' ','-').gsub(/-+$/,'')
  end
end


## Example
"this is pretty sweet".to_permalink