change my url from depending on id to title | django - django

Question

I've a url for checking books by its id:
path('book/<int:book_id>', views.book, name='book'),
view:
def book(request, book_id):
book = get_object_or_404(Book, pk=book_id)
context = {
'book': book
}
return render(request, 'media/book.html', context)
but my client asked me to change it for the title instead but I tried it and it didn't seem to work, there are no examples for it in the docs either.

Answer 1

The NOTE in the answer above does not take SEO into account. For SEO purposes, it is much better to have a url that includes the name of the book rather than just the ID. If you are already in production, then remember to do a permanent redirect in your view from all ID-based urls to the slug-based url. Your Book model definition (or Product or whatever you've called it) should include a slugified field:
class Book(models.Model):
name = models.CharField(...)
slug = models.CharField(max_length=255, default='', unique=True, blank=True)
other_fields...
def save(self, *args, **kwargs):
# Create slug for SEO
#Don't ever change once established since is part of the URI
if self.slug is None or self.slug == '':
self.slug = slugify(self.name)
super(Book, self).save(*args, **kwargs)

Answer 2

You need to change the url to 'book/<str:book_title>', and also adjust your function accordingly:
def book(request, book_title):
book = get_object_or_404(Book, yourfieldfortitle=book_title)
...
It might be helpful to try accessing the url first with a pattern that you know must work. NOTE: this makes the strong assumption that a book is identified by its title, otherwise using the primary key is the proper way even if it doesn't "look nice" as a url.