Serving static files for development mode in Django

Question

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...

In your first edit you say that "in development mode Django attempts to look for the files from the STATIC_URL in the static/ subdirectories of all the installed apps" but this is not exactly true, what happens is you run manage.py collectstatic and it copies the files from the installed apps into STATIC_ROOT. If you are able to get files served when you use --nostatic option then you must be using apache or something to serve on your STATIC_URL ? — Anentropic, Mar 30 '12 at 03:30

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 09 '11 at 04:26

1

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.

answered Apr 09 '11 at 04:26

julx

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MEDIA_ROOT and STATIC_ROOT are wrong here... they should be file paths (on disk) not domain names. – Anentropic Mar 30 '12 at 03:27
2

Then, did you mean `STATICFILES_DIRS` instead of `STATIC_DIRS`? – Paolo Jun 12 '12 at 20:00

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:16

0

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

edited May 23 '17 at 12:16

Community

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answered Apr 09 '11 at 01:28

mrmagooey

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I'll try it in a sec. The problem is that this is I think the exact contents of the `static()` function. – julx Apr 09 '11 at 01:31
Maybe an issue with what you have your ADMIN_ROOT set to? I think it has to be set to something different from MEDIA_ROOT. Maybe a file system permissions issue? Sorry not an expert I just had a similar problem and spent some time trying to work it out. – mrmagooey Apr 09 '11 at 02:03

Serving static files for development mode in Django

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