Serving static files for development mode in Django - django

I'm having trouble serving static files in development mode in Django. I do know that this is not a setting that should be used in a production server, so don't worry. For now however I'd like to stick to it.
The relevant parts of settings.py are:
MEDIA_URL = '/media/'
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__) + '/..'), 'media')
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__) + '/..'), 'static')
And of urls.py:
urlpatterns += static(settings.MEDIA_URL, document_root=settings.MEDIA_ROOT)
urlpatterns += static(settings.STATIC_URL, document_root=settings.STATIC_ROOT)
So the static files are located for now in the directory named static right outside the project folder. I verified that STATIC_ROOT is evaluated to an appropriate value. I've double checked that the folder exists.
However when pointing my browser to the address localhost:8000/static/js/somefile.js, I get the dreaded 404 Page Not Found with the message 'js/somefile.js' could not be found.. Could you please suggest some reasons to this behaviour?
Thanks in advance.
EDIT:
I think I know where the problem may be: The thing is that in development mode Django attempts to look for the files from the STATIC_URL in the static/ subdirectories of all the installed apps. However I've added some additional files to my STATIC_ROOT and these are not served at all. Maybe there is some clash.
EDIT (2):
This must be it. When I run the server with ./manage.py runserver --nostatic it works, that is it actually serves the files from the STATIC_ROOT directory. What can I do about it? The problem is that just as I try to keep all my template files separate from the project itself I try to do the same with certain css and js files...

It doesn't work, because what I was trying to do wasn't very wise.
That's how it should be configured. settings.py:
MEDIA_URL = '/media/'
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
MEDIA_ROOT = 'media.mydomain.com'
STATIC_ROOT = 'static.mydomain.com'
STATIC_DIRS = (
os.path.join(os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__) + '/..'), 'static'),
)
All the files remain in place, exactly where they were.

I had a similar problem, adding an explicit reference to the media location in my urlconf as per this fixed the problem for me.

Related

What is the correct settings for static files in django

I just started using django and I got confused over the static files. As per this post correct static files setting I understand that STATIC_URL is just like the name. STATICFILES_DIRS is the place where django will look for static files and STATIC_ROOT where the static files will be collected to. For my project I had the following file sys
rest
|__ rest
|__ settings.py
pages
static
|__admin
|__images
|__vendor
|__bootstrap
templates
manage.py
I decided to go for a project based approach when having my folders instead of a per app one. Some stuff was not working with the website landing page I had and I saw that I needed to collectstatic and so I did but I set the path to my already existing static file which did not let me at first but somehow ended up working. Out of nowhere my static folder had admin on it which I assume is from the admin app that comes with django, and my project finally started to work properly which is the confusing part. I decided to follow the post and included in my settings the following
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
STATICFILES_DIRS = [
os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static'),
]
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'staticfiles/')
Now I have a staticfiles folder along with my static folder. Also within the staticfiles folder I have everything I have in the static folder and that does not seem right and would like to know how to fix this. I am confused and a bit concerned that I will break everything again so any knowledge provided will be helpful.
I have used like this and its working fine:
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
STATICFILES_DIRS =[os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static')]
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'assets')
MEDIA_URL = '/media/'
MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'media')
and use to implement code in the main Project urls.py and not in-app urls.py
urlpatterns += static(settings.STATIC_URL, documents_root=settings.STATIC_ROOT)
urlpatterns += static(settings.MEDIA_URL, documents_root=settings.MEDIA_ROOT)

In production Django {{object.image.url}} not working in production. How to show image/MEDIA_ROOT/ in production?

When I set DEBUG=False in app/settings.py
{{object.img.url}} not working. How to fix this?
when I inspect it's img.url getting /images/image_name.jpg like this. In DEBUG=True http://127.0.0.1:8000/images/image_name.jpg it shows image. But when I set DEBUG=False this http://127.0.0.1:8000/images/image_name.jpg this didn't show anything.
my media root
MEDIA_URL = '/images/'
MEDIA_ROOT = (BASE_DIR / 'static/images')
in my URL I added
urlpatterns += static(settings.MEDIA_URL, document_root=settings.MEDIA_ROOT)
urlpatterns += static(settings.STATIC_URL, document_root=settings.STATIC_ROOT)
How to show image/MEDIA_ROOT/ in production.
As django doc says, it is:
Helper function to return a URL pattern for serving files in debug
mode:
See more here. So, this function returns no URL patterns if not in DEBUG mode.
In general, as a rule of thumb, Django should not serve static content, i.e. static or media files. Some other, like nginx, apache, etc. should serve static content in production environment.
Following 4 settings are important.
# Static files (CSS, JavaScript, Images)
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.2/howto/static-files/
STATIC_URL = "https://xyz.abc.com/static/"
STATIC_ROOT = "/home/kcsl/web/xyz.abc.com/public_html/static/"
MEDIA_URL = "https://xyz.abc.com/media/"
MEDIA_ROOT = "/home/kcsl/web/xyz.abc.com/public_html/media/"
Use collectstatic command also
$ python manage.py collectstatic

how to run static files in pythonanywhere hosting?

I'm trying to upload my project via pythonanywhere but I always get failed to load static files I tried to download it by the static files section of web tab that exists into pythonanywhere and also I got failed you can see what I did here, I will show you all details that I did to help you to understand what could you give me the help through it:
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static')
# STATIC_ROOT = "/home/abdelhamedabdin96/website/website/static/index"
MEDIA_URL = '/media/'
MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'media')
# MAIN_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(__file__))
# STATICFILES_DIRS = (
# os.path.join(MAIN_DIR, 'static'),
# )
and in urls.py
if settings.DEBUG:
urlpatterns += static(settings.STATIC_URL, document_root=settings.STATIC_ROOT)
urlpatterns += static(settings.MEDIA_URL, document_root=settings.MEDIA_ROOT)
It seems like you haven't run collect static command, You need to run this command
python manage.py collectstatic
Here its explanation for more info vist to the django official docs
django.contrib.staticfiles collects static files from each of your applications (and any other places you specify) into a single location that can easily be served in production.
Try use Aws console and its very cheap. I see bugs on Pythonanywhere. ie. Scheduler and a lot of limitations.

Django website giving trouble serving static files

I am working on a multi-app website. And I have bunch of noob questions.
My dir structure looks like as below:
/var/www/html/portal
src/
manage.py
portal/
static/
admin/
css/
img/
js/
fonts/
templates/
base.html
homepage.html
venv/
Is my dir structure as per as Django standards?
Are my STATIC files settings correct?
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
STATICFILES_DIRS = (
os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static'),
)
Or should it be
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(PROJECT_DIR, 'static')
Should I collectstatic after copying all my static files such as css,js etc or I can do it before copying files in those dirs?
If I do collectstatic without mentioning STATIC_ROOT I get an exception
django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: You're using the staticfiles app without having set the STATIC_ROOT setting to a filesystem path.
But when I replace STATICFILES_DIRS with the following, my .css files stop serving. What am I doing wrong?
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(PROJECT_DIR, 'static')
You don't need to run staticfiles when you're running a development server and DEBUG is set to True.
Static and media files can be then served directly via the web process (Docs) with adding these lines to your main urls.py:
if settings.DEBUG:
urlpatterns += static(settings.STATIC_URL, document_root=settings.STATIC_ROOT)
urlpatterns += static(settings.MEDIA_URL, document_root=settings.MEDIA_ROOT)
As to the whole STATIC_URL, STATIC_ROOT, MEDIA_URL and MEDIA_ROOT, they're all related to how you'll serve your app in production, with a proper webserver.
What usually happens then is that the webserver (i.e. Nginx) handles serving files, not the Django app. But the Django app needs to know where are they. So:
STATIC_URL and MEDIA_URL need to be the same in your Django app settings and in your webserver config, for example with Nginx:
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
MEDIA_URL = '/media/'
...
location /static {
alias /home/myusername/myproject/static/;
}
location /media {
alias /home/myusername/myproject/media/;
}
STATIC_ROOT MEDIA_ROOT are 100% about how you want to structure your project on the server. Assuming the above, you need to work out how to point it to /home/myusername/myproject/static/.
Example of my settings:
BASE_DIR = Path(__file__).parent.parent.parent
MEDIA_URL = '/media/'
MEDIA_ROOT = str(BASE_DIR.joinpath('media'))
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
STATIC_ROOT = str(BASE_DIR.joinpath('staticfiles'))
Media files will be directly uploaded to the MEDIA_ROOT, but notice that you need to somehow get the static files from your applications (which could be in a number of folders, a library you use can have some extra static files, Django Admin has then, etc.) to the folder that Nginx is pointed to (which should be the same as STATIC_ROOT). That's where collectstaticfiles comes in and copies all your static files to that directory.
In regards to directory structure, there are differences of opinion on how it should be set up. A quick google search can bring up some websites and discussions on Django project structures. I recommend reading some of the information to determine what is best for your and your project.
The Django documentation has a best practices page as well that is a good resource/reminder. Django Best Practices.
I mainly followed the Two Scoops of Django directory structure. The Two Scoops has helped me a lot in understanding this. My own twist looks something like this.
src/
app/
templates/
app_name/
base.html
other_pages.html
tests/
tests.py
app_files.py
static/
images/
css/
etc..
templates/
global_includes/
include_file.html
base.html
The collectstatic should not effect the serving of your static files during development. From what I have learned, collectstatic is more for when you are serving your static files during deployment from a separate server, or aws, heroku, etc. More info can be found here in the docs: Managing Static Files, staticfiles app, Deploying static files
I have learned that if my CSS files are not serving, it usually has something to do with my path. Chrome developer tools inspect element/console helps me with any path errors.
Have you added
+ static(settings.STATIC_URL, document_root=settings.STATIC_ROOT)
to your your main urlpattern/urls.py?
Here is more information on serving files during development: Serving static files during development.
Lastly check that your BASE_DIR is following the correct path for your project. You may have to change it.
I hope this helps.
Remember that if you have DEBUG set to 'False' it will ignore the staticfiles setting because it is expected that your webserver will be serving this directly. This caught me out a few times until I realized I hadn't updated the staticfiles folder (which I keep in a separate repository for reasons I can't remember now).
This seems to work in current django (2.2) :
from django.conf.urls.static import serve
urlpatterns += [
path(settings.STATIC_URL[1:], serve, {'document_root': settings.STATIC_ROOT })
]

Configuring Django runserver to serve static files in a non-app directory?

I'm trying to configure Django to serve static files when using runserver (production works fine). Everything works fine for all of the static files that are under an apps directory. The problem comes with static files that are not under a specific app, but are in the final static directory. For instance, I have this project structure:
/myproject/
/myproject/static/
/myproject/static/css/foo.css
/myproject/app1
/myproject/app1/static/css/bar.css
urls.py
if settings.SERVE_STATIC:
urlpatterns += patterns('',
url(r'^static/(?P<path>.*)$', 'django.views.static.serve',
{'document_root': settings.STATIC_ROOT}),
)
urlpatterns += staticfiles_urlpatterns() # one of these may be redundant.
settings.py
SERVE_STATIC = True
PROJECT_ROOT = '/myproject'
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(PROJECT_ROOT, 'static')
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
STATICFILES_DIRS = (os.path.join(PROJECT_ROOT, 'static'),)
INSTALLED_APPS = ('app1',)
With these settings, I get the error:
ImproperlyConfigured: The STATICFILES_DIRS setting should not contain
the STATIC_ROOT setting
Which makes sense. I'm telling Django to collect static files, and put them in the same place - which could cause a loop.
If I comment out the STATICFILES_DIRS variable, django will find the static file 'bar.css'. But it does not find 'foo.css'.
If I comment out the STATIC_ROOT variable and put back the STATICFILES_DIRS, then it finds the file 'foo.css' - but of course, the 'collectstatic' command will no longer work.
Note - I realize that the '/static' directory is supposed to be empty, but the project I'm on, has files there anyway. :) As long as they're not overwritten by 'collectstatic', it looks like Django runserver should serve them - but it doesn't.
How do I serve the static files under STATIC_ROOT (such as foo.css) when running Django runserver?
Move the files that are in /static/ right now to a different directory -- call it /project-static/, for instance.
Then only include this line in urls.py:
urlpatterns += staticfiles_urlpatterns()
(remove the django.views.static.serve view)
And in settings.py, use this:
STATICFILES_DIRS = (os.path.join(PROJECT_ROOT, 'project-static'),)
Then you can put files in /project-static/ directory on your filesystem, the development server will serve them out of the /static/ URL prefix, and in production, collectstatic will find them and put them into the /static/ directory where the web server can find them.