I am trying to implement a URL scheme similar to stack overflow's in django/python.
E.g. the pk is stored in the URL along with a slug of the title so for this question (id #4787731) the URL is
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4787731/canonical-links-and-301-redirect-if-url-doesnt-match-slug
If I later change the title (or just put in some random crud into the url) then the site will still know which question I am after (by the ID) and will 301 redirect to the correct URL - e.g. try.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4787731/canonical-links-MODIFIED-URL
So
(can I use get_absolute_url)
- What is the best way to recognize that the current URL doesn't match the canonical link and issue a 301?
Note - This question is similar but only addresses the case of generating the slug on the fly or statically.
1: I don't think there's a point in using the canonical tag if there are 301s anyways.
Let's just imagine a scenario where you change the URL from /q/111/hello-world
to /q/111/foobar
. The engines won't assume the two are equal unless they visit the original url with the canonical tag on it pointing to /q/111/foobar
(which it wont, because it's now a 301, severing any proof of a relationship between the pages).
2: I'd do it the straight forward way. Define a non unique slug
field and compare vs the captured URL in your detail view.
# models
class MyModel(models.Model):
# ...
non_unique_slug = models.SlugField()
def get_absolute_url(self):
return "/questions/%s/%s" % (self.id, self.non_unique_slug)
# urls
r'^questions/(?P<id>\d+)/(?P<slug>[\w-]+)/$'
# views
def my_view(request, id, slug):
page = Page.objects.get(id=id)
if not slug == page.slug:
return http.HttpResponsePermanentRedirect(page.get_absolute_url())
# render page
return direct_to_template(request, "foobar.html", {'page': page})
I followed Yuji's helpful instructions but found that you'll need to use the HttpResponsePermanentRedirect
object to get a permanent 301 instead of the temporary 302.
- https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/request-response/#django.http.HttpResponsePermanentRedirect