Serving static images on webfaction-hosted django site - django

Question

I'm using a webfaction-hosted django site, and I'm trying to get locally stored images to show properly, but I'm having trouble getting the static directories/permissions/etc. to line up.
I've configured everything according to webfaction's guide at https://docs.webfaction.com/software/django/config.html
In my project's templates folder, I have the line:
<img src="{{ STATIC_URL }}{{ project.overview_image }}">
where project.overview_image is a CharField where I can list a subdirectory where the image is located.
In my settings.py, I have:
STATIC_URL = 'http://morphogen.cc/static/'
STATIC_ROOT = '/home/scottnla/webapps/static_media/'
STATICFILES_DIRS = (
'/home/scottnla/webapps/portfolio_website/portfolio_website/static/'
)
where /webapps/static_media/ is my static media app.
inside of my project's local /static/ folder, i have an image in the folder
/home/scottnla/webapps/portfolio_website/portfolio_website/static/images/small/img.jpg
and when i run 'manage.py collectstatic', the image is copied to:
/home/scottnla/webapps/static_media/images/small/img.jpg
but when I look at my served HTML page, the image doesn't show.
When I inspect the element, I see that the image source is listed as:
<img src="http://morphogen.cc/static/images/small/img.jpg">
which seems consistent with everything above, but if I go directly to that directory, I get a 403 Forbidden Error.
What's the next step in troubleshooting this?
thanks.

Answer 1

Your settings.py should look like this.
STATIC_ROOT = '/home/USER_NAME/webapps/static_media/'
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
STATIC_DIR is outdated and unnecessary for a single static folder
ALSO, you must have
INSTALLED_APPS = (
...
'django.contrib.staticfiles',
...
)
IF you're still having problems check the Django Static Files Documentation