A simple static file location issue - django

Question

I've gone and adjusted something somewhere along the line, and cant find way back.
My file structure
examplesite1
--registration
--A bunch of files well ignore
--snapboard
--static
--Associated static folders css, js etc
--templates
--snapboard
--html files
--some folders
--manage.py
--settings.py
--urls.py
--__init__.py
Im having trouble pointing the html files in templates/snapboard to the static files in snapboard/media.The code in the html is
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="{{ SNAP_MEDIA_PREFIX }}/css/yui/reset-fonts-grids.css" />
in the settings file I have of that which i think is valid
MEDIA_ROOT = ''
MEDIA_URL = '/snapboard/'
ADMIN_MEDIA_PREFIX = '/media/admin/'
TEMPLATE_LOADERS = (
'django.template.loaders.filesystem.load_template_source',
'django.template.loaders.app_directories.load_template_source',
#'django.template.loaders.eggs.load_template_source',
)
STATICFILES_DIRS = (
)
STATICFILES_FINDERS = (
'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.FileSystemFinder',
'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.AppDirectoriesFinder',
'django.contrib.staticfiles',
# 'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.DefaultStorageFinder',
)
STATIC_URL = 'static/'
TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS = (
"django.core.context_processors.auth",
"django.core.context_processors.debug",
"django.core.context_processors.i18n",
"django.core.context_processors.request",
"snapboard.views.snapboard_default_context",
)
MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES = (
'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
'django.middleware.doc.XViewMiddleware',
'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfResponseMiddleware',
'pagination.middleware.PaginationMiddleware',
'snapboard.middleware.threadlocals.ThreadLocals',
'snapboard.middleware.ban.IPBanMiddleware',
'snapboard.middleware.ban.UserBanMiddleware',
)
ROOT_URLCONF = 'examplesite1.urls'
TEMPLATE_DIRS = (
)
INSTALLED_APPS = (
'examplesite1',
'registration',
'django.contrib.admin',
'django.contrib.auth',
'django.contrib.contenttypes',
'django.contrib.markup',
'django.contrib.sessions',
'django.contrib.sites',
'django.contrib.staticfiles',
'snapboard',
'pagination',
)
SNAP_MEDIA_PREFIX = MEDIA_URL + 'static/'
# Set MEDIA_ROOT so the project works out of the box
import os
MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'snapboard/media')
Ive spent bloody ages going through a process of elimination trying a ton different combinations with out success. Whats the correct way to code this.

Answer 1

make ur media url as MEDIA_URL = '/snapboard/' and in your code change href="{{ SNAP_MEDIA_PREFIX }}/css/yui/reset-fonts-grids.css" to href="{{ SNAP_MEDIA_PREFIX }}css/yui/reset-fonts-grids.css" because {{ SNAP_MEDIA_PREFIX }}/css/ is not same as {{ SNAP_MEDIA_PREFIX }}css/

Answer 2

What version of Django are you running? If it's 1.3+, you should be using the staticfiles contrib package and you app's "media" directory should be named static to allow Django to pick it up.
Otherwise, there's no support for static resources inside your apps, so you need to copy all those files into your MEDIA_ROOT directory.
UPDATED
Drop the whole SNAP_MEDIA_PREFIX business; it's unnecessary and complicating things. This is all you need:
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'static')
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'site_media')
MEDIA_URL = '/site_media/'
Never directly use STATIC_ROOT. This is the directory where the collectstatic management command will dump files, and should be served directly by your production webserver. Django never serves anything from here.
MEDIA_ROOT is for uploads, now, i.e. any time you have a FileField, ImageField, etc. on a model, the actual file will be put somewhere in here. It also should be directly served by your webserver in production. Don't put any of your static resources here.
Do put all of your static resources in your app's static directory. Each app's static directory will be served by Django in development under STATIC_URL. So, <project_root>/some_app/static/style.css will be available at /static/style.css through your browser. Because of this, it's usually a good idea to namespace your static directories, i.e. use <project_root>/some_app/static/some_app/style.css instead so that the URL becomes /static/some_app/style.css. That way your static files don't overwrite each other.
If you need project-wide static resources, create an entirely different directory in your project (I tend to use assets) and then add that to STATICFILES_DIRS like so:
STATICFILES_DIRS = (
os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'assets'),
)