18- Django Search Functionality

Open up base.html. The below code is the untouched form of the search box that I got from bootstrap.com. 

            <form class="d-flex" role="search">
              <input class="form-control me-2" type="search" placeholder="Search" aria-label="Search">
              <button class="btn btn-outline-light" type="submit">Search</button>
            </form>

I need to add form action and method attributes. Note that, name (q) and value are added to input element.

            <form class="d-flex" role="search" action="{% url 'search' %}" method="GET">
              <input class="form-control me-2" type="search" placeholder="Search" aria-label="Search" name="q" value={{request.GET.q}}>
              <button class="btn btn-outline-light" type="submit">Search</button>
            </form>

Create a url for search

urls.py

path('search/', views.search, name='search'),

views.py

Import Q object first. Q is an object used to encapsulate a collection of keyword arguments. Using Q objects we can make complex queries with less and simple code.

I want user to be able to search movie title, movie descriptions or actors name. Query returns movie object.The first 2 queries uses Movie model directly.

The last query checks moviemodel if actorname is found, it returns the corresponding movie object.

from django.db.models import Q

def search(request):
    query = request.GET.get('q')
    results = Movie.objects.filter(
        Q(title__icontains=query) |
        Q(description__icontains=query) |
        #Assume use searches for Tom, this query returns movie objects where actorname is Tom. 
        #moviemodel is the related name that we defined in models.py
        Q(moviemodel__actorname__icontains=query)
    )

    return render(request, 'search.html', {'results':results})

create a template and name it as search.html

User will see a link on Movie titles,so he can click and watch that movie

{% extends 'base.html'%}
{% block title %}
    <title>Serach Results</title>
{% endblock title %}

{% block content %}
    
    {% for r in results%}
        <a href= "{% url 'watchmovie' r.id %}">
        {{r.title}}</a>
        <br>        
        {{r.description}}
        <hr>
    {% endfor %}
{% endblock content %}

 He can search by movie title

He can search by the movie description

 He can search by the actor name