Recipes¶

Practical, copy-pasteable patterns for common NetBox SQIDs use cases.

Build a short shareable URL for any object¶

from django.conf import settings

def shareable_url(obj):
    base = getattr(settings, "BASE_PATH", "")
    prefix = settings.PLUGINS_CONFIG.get("netbox_sqids", {}).get(
        "monkeypatched_url_prefix", "s"
    )
    if prefix:
        return f"/{base}{prefix}/{obj.sqid}/"
    return f"/{base}plugins/sqids/{obj.sqid}/"

In a template:

{% raw %}https://netbox.example.com/s/{{ obj.sqid }}/{% endraw %}

Add a "Copy SQID" link to every object page¶

In Customization -> Custom Links, create a link with the following values:

• Name: Short URL
• Content types: select all object types you care about
• Link text: {% raw %}{{ obj.sqid }}{% endraw %}
• Link URL: {% raw %}https://netbox.example.com/s/{{ obj.sqid }}/{% endraw %}

The link will render in the object's right-side toolbar with the SQID as its visible text.

Print SQID barcodes on labels¶

Because SQIDs are uppercase alphanumeric and contain no ambiguous characters, they encode well in Code 128 and QR. Wire your label exporter to read obj.sqid and emit a barcode plus the human-readable SQID underneath.

for device in queryset:
    label.add_code128(device.sqid)
    label.add_text(device.sqid)

When someone scans the label, the resulting URL https://netbox.example.com/s/WK1J/ opens directly to the device.

Add a SQID column to CSV exports¶

In Customization -> Export Templates, create a template scoped to the content type you want to export:

{% raw %}name,site,sqid
{% for obj in queryset %}{{ obj.name }},{{ obj.site }},{{ obj.sqid }}
{% endfor %}{% endraw %}

Resulting CSV:

name,site,sqid
edge-01,DC1,WK1J
edge-02,DC1,M2QH

Recipients can paste any SQID value into a browser's address bar to jump straight to the underlying object.

Resolve a list of SQIDs in bulk¶

resolve_sqid() is a single-object lookup. To resolve many SQIDs without hammering the database, group by content type:

from collections import defaultdict
from django.contrib.contenttypes.models import ContentType
from netbox_sqids.sqids import _get_instance

def resolve_many(sqids):
    instance = _get_instance()
    by_ct = defaultdict(list)
    for s in sqids:
        ids = instance.decode(s)
        if len(ids) == 2:
            by_ct[ids[0]].append(ids[1])

    results = {}
    for ct_id, pks in by_ct.items():
        ct = ContentType.objects.get_for_id(ct_id)
        model = ct.model_class()
        for obj in model.objects.filter(pk__in=pks):
            results[obj.sqid] = obj
    return results

Note that _get_instance() is an internal helper -- if you need a public API for bulk resolution, please open an issue.

Look up the API URL for a SQID without HTTP¶

The SqidApiRedirectView builds an API URL by calling NetBox's get_viewname() and reverse(). You can do the same in code:

from django.urls import reverse
from utilities.views import get_viewname
from netbox_sqids.sqids import resolve_sqid

def api_url_for(sqid):
    obj = resolve_sqid(sqid)
    viewname = get_viewname(obj, action="detail", rest_api=True)
    return reverse(viewname, kwargs={"pk": obj.pk})

Detect malformed SQIDs in user input¶

When accepting SQIDs from user input (chat bots, ticketing webhooks, ...):

from django.core.exceptions import ObjectDoesNotExist
from netbox_sqids.sqids import resolve_sqid

def safe_resolve(token):
    try:
        return resolve_sqid(token)
    except (ValueError, ObjectDoesNotExist):
        return None

ValueError covers empty strings, garbage input, and tokens that decode to the wrong number of components. ObjectDoesNotExist covers tokens that were once valid but point at deleted records.

Generate a SQID without a saved instance¶

Sometimes you want a SQID for an object you have not committed yet -- for example, in a transaction-aware preview. The descriptor returns None for unsaved objects, so save the object first and read sqid afterwards:

device = Device(name="new-edge", ...)
device.full_clean()
device.save()
print(device.sqid)

If you must compute a SQID for a synthetic id, call the encoder directly:

from django.contrib.contenttypes.models import ContentType
from dcim.models import Device
from netbox_sqids.sqids import _get_instance

ct_id = ContentType.objects.get_for_model(Device).pk
sqid = _get_instance().encode([ct_id, 999_999])

This is most useful in tests; production code should rely on the descriptor.