How to create a unique slug in Django

Question

I am trying to create a unique slug in Django so that I can access a post via a url like this: http://www.example.com/buy-a-new-bike_Boston-MA-02111_2

The relevant m

Answer 1

Here are a couple functions that I use. You pass in the model instance and the desired title into unique_slugify which will add the slug if it doesn't exist, otherwise it will continue trying to append a 4 digit random string until it finds a unique one.

import string
from django.utils.crypto import get_random_string

def unique_slugify(instance, slug):
    model = instance.__class__
    unique_slug = slug
    while model.objects.filter(slug=unique_slug).exists():
        unique_slug = slug + get_random_string(length=4)
    return unique_slug

I usually use it by overriding the model save method.

class YourModel(models.Model):
    slug = models.SlugField()
    title = models.CharField()

    def save(self, *args, **kwargs):
        if not self.slug:
            self.slug = unique_slugify(self, slugify(self.title))
        super().save(*args, **kwargs)