Django Can't Find Template in App - django

Question

So i'm trying to build a basic blog in Django (am currently using the latest version of Django) and i'm running into a really annoying problem. When I try and set up my html templates, I keep on getting a templatedoesnotexisterror.
Here's the rub--if I set up my html templates in the root app of the project ("blogcode"), they run perfectly. But then, once I start running another app ("articles") and then I set up a templates folder using articles/templates/articles/homepage.html, all of the sudden, it doesn't work. I can't get django to look anywhere but in the root app directory to find and ultimately render templates.
In my settings.py file, i've the DIRS list set to 'templates'. When I tried changing it to os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'templates') I get the same "templatedoesnot exist" error. Also, my app IS properly installed in the INSTALLED_APPS list in settings.
I've tried looking in other documentation, but the only hints I can find are really outdated. On the views.py, if I chop off the articles/, and just leave it as 'homepage.html' django renders it from the root app just fine and ignores the template in the articles app, but if I try and get it to render from the articles app, I get the "templatedoesnotexist" error. What's going on?
Here's my code:
articles/urls.py
from django.urls import path
from . import views
urlpatterns = [
path('', views.startpage, name='startpage'),
]
articles/views.py:
from django.shortcuts import render
from django.http import HttpResponse
from .models import Article
def startpage(request):
return render(request, 'articles/homepage.html')
blogcode/settings.py
INSTALLED_APPS = [
'articles.apps.ArticlesConfig',
'django.contrib.admin',
'django.contrib.auth',
'django.contrib.contenttypes',
'django.contrib.sessions',
'django.contrib.messages',
'django.contrib.staticfiles',
]
MIDDLEWARE = [
'django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware',
'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware',
]
ROOT_URLCONF = 'horror_blog.urls'
TEMPLATES = [
{
'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
'DIRS': ['templates'],
'APP_DIRS': True,
'OPTIONS': {
'context_processors': [
'django.template.context_processors.debug',
'django.template.context_processors.request',
'django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth',
'django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages',
],
},
},
]
WSGI_APPLICATION = 'horror_blog.wsgi.application'

Answer 1

Try register the app that way, and put django apps above your owns
Instead of
'articles.apps.ArticlesConfig',
Try this:
INSTALLED_APPS = [
''' django apps'''
'articles'
]
this 'DIRS': ['templates'] should be 'DIRS': [os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'templates'),],