Develop Reference

correct static files setting

Hello I'm very confused about setting static files up. Every thing works fine(displays image, javascript, css) no matter what I try. So I'm confused which one is the right one.
Currently, this is how my project looks like
project
--project
---------static
---------media
--env
--static
--------media
--------static
And this is my code
MEDIA_URL = '/media/'
MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(BASE_DIR), "static", "media")
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
STATICFILES_DIRS = (os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static'),)
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(BASE_DIR), "static", "static")
# List of finder classes that know how to find static files in
# various locations.
STATICFILES_FINDERS = (
'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.FileSystemFinder',
'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.AppDirectoriesFinder',
# 'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.DefaultStorageFinder',
)
When I do python manage.py collectstatic, I don't get any error but static folder that's in outer static folder doesn't contain anything. but media folder that's in static folder contains the files in media folder that's in project folder.
Also
I have this for aws,
AWS_FILE_EXPIRE = 200
AWS_PRELOAD_METADATA = True
AWS_QUERYSTRING_AUTH = True
DEFAULT_FILE_STORAGE = 'project.utils.MediaRootS3BotoStorage'
STATICFILES_STORAGE = 'project.utils.StaticRootS3BotoStorage'
AWS_STORAGE_BUCKET_NAME = 'realproject'
S3DIRECT_REGION = 'ap-northeast-2'
S3_URL = '//%s.s3.amazonaws.com/' % AWS_STORAGE_BUCKET_NAME
MEDIA_URL = '//%s.s3.amazonaws.com/media/' % AWS_STORAGE_BUCKET_NAME
MEDIA_ROOT = MEDIA_URL
STATIC_URL = S3_URL + 'static/'
ADMIN_MEDIA_PREFIX = STATIC_URL + 'admin/'
import datetime
date_two_months_later = datetime.date.today() + datetime.timedelta(2 * 365 / 12)
expires = date_two_months_later.strftime("%A, %d %B %Y 20:00:00 GMT")
AWS_HEADERS = {
'Expires': expires,
'Cache-Control': 'max-age=86400',
}
Can someone please tell me if I'm doing it right?
by the way, I read https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.9/howto/static-files/
and followed it, i'm not sure if I followed it right(displayed above) which is why I'm asking.

The python manage.py collectstatic command looks for all your static directories and combines those file in the directory defined by the STATIC_ROOT setting.
In your case, STATIC_ROOT is set to os.path.join(os.path.dirname(BASE_DIR), "static", "static"), i.e.
your_project/static/static
So this is where the static files are being collected to. If you want them in the outer static directory, you can change STATIC_ROOT to os.path.join(os.path.dirname(BASE_DIR), "static").
There is a good discussion of this in the excellent Django docs here.
There is quite a lot to take in in these settings, so here is a quick summary of each static setting as an example:
# this is the URL that django will look for static resources at
# - i.e. http://your_domain/static
# so this one is a URL used when by your web server and in template
# shortcuts.
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
# this is where Django will look for static files to collect.
# I.e. the search locations that collectstatic uses.
# 'my_project/static' in this instance. You need to add the places
# you write your static files to this directory. For example, if you
# have several places where you are writing css files, add their
# container directories to this setting.
# it is a list of places to look for static files.
STATICFILES_DIRS = (os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static'),)
# this is where collectstatic will collect the static files to.
# When you hook this all into your webserver, you would tell your
# webserver that the /static/ url maps to this directory so that
# your app can find the static content. It's a directory in your
# project usually.
# it's a single directory where the static files are collected together.
STATIC_ROOT

static file not served in heroku app

I deployed my final working project to heroku.
The problem is only html content loading, Static files are missing. I tried lots but missing something. Can you spot the error.
# .. settings.py
STATICFILES_FINDERS = (
'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.AppDirectoriesFinder',
'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.FileSystemFinder',
)
STATICFILES_DIRS = (
# Put strings here, like "/home/html/static" or "C:/www/django/static".
# Always use forward slashes, even on Windows.
# Don't forget to use absolute paths, not relative paths.
os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static/'),
)
STATIC_ROOT = ''
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
TEMPLATE_DIRS = (
os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'templates/'),
)
# List of callables that know how to import templates from various sources.
TEMPLATE_LOADERS = (
'django.template.loaders.filesystem.Loader',
'django.template.loaders.app_directories.Loader',
)

You must give the STATIC_ROOT ...(It can not be empty). Because the "HEROKU", always run 'collectstatic' while deploying.. and it creates the folder like as 'static files' and all the process running by the way of this folder contents.

I can't define STATICFILES_DIRS using Python to figure out the path

I want to be able to define my settings for static/media files using python to get the paths so I don't need different settings on my dev machine and my server.
So I have these settings;
import os
from unipath import Path
### PATH CONFIGURATION
# Absolute filesystem path to the top-level project folder
SITE_ROOT = Path(__file__).ancestor(3)
### MEDIA CONFIGURATION
MEDIA_ROOT = SITE_ROOT.child('media')
MEDIA_URL = '/media/'
### END MEDIA CONFIGURATION
### STATIC CONFIGURATION
STATIC_ROOT = SITE_ROOT.child('static')
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
# Additional locations of static files
STATICFILES_DIRS = os.path.join(SITE_ROOT, 'static'),
My problem is that locally it won't load the static files and the terminal says that STATICFILES_DIRS should not contain the STATICFILES_ROOT.
Is it possible to get Python to load the paths like this or am I wasting my time?

There's nothing wrong with your code per se, it's just that the point of the staticfiles app is to copy the files from the directories specified in STATICFILES_DIRS into the directory specified in STATIC_ROOT, so it doesn't make much sense to include the STATIC_ROOT directory in the STATICFILES_DIRS setting.
Unless you're actually using the staticfiles app with ./manage.py collectstatic, you may as well just leave the STATICFILES_DIRS setting empty, i.e. just change...
STATICFILES_DIRS = os.path.join(SITE_ROOT, 'static'),
...to...
STATICFILES_DIRS = ()

Do like this:
import os
settings_dir = os.path.dirname(__file__)
PROJECT_ROOT = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(settings_dir))
MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(PROJECT_ROOT, 'media/')
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(PROJECT_ROOT, 'static/')
STATICFILES_DIRS = (
os.path.join(PROJECT_ROOT, 'static/'),
)
That should work. Hope it helps!

+1 for both other answers. If you get tired of typing os.path.bla a lot here's a shortcut you can position at the top of your settings file (or import from anywhere else)
def rel(*x):
return os.path.join(os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__)), *x)
STATICFILES_DIRS = (
rel('static'),
)

Django Static Files results in 404

Ive checked over quite a few of the other threads on being unable to serve static content using the static file app within Django but as yet have yet to find a solution.
settings.py
STATIC_ROOT = '/opt/django/webtools/static/'
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
STATICFILES_DIRS = (
"/home/html/static",
)
STATICFILES_FINDERS = (
'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.FileSystemFinder',
'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.AppDirectoriesFinder',
# 'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.DefaultStorageFinder',
)
Template
relevant line....
<img src="{{ STATIC_URL }}macmonster/img/macmonster-logo-blue.png" >
Logs
From the logs it looks like the path is correct, but alas it is still resulting in a 404..
[10/Feb/2013 16:19:50] "GET /static/macmonster/img/macmonster-logo-blue.png HTTP/1.1" 404 1817
[10/Feb/2013 16:19:51] "GET /static/macmonster/img/macmonster-logo-blue.png HTTP/1.1" 404 1817

For local serving of static files, if you haven't set up any form of collecting of staticfiles and if you're running Django 1.3+, I believe this is the way your settings.py should look like when refering to static files
# Absolute path to the directory static files should be collected to.
# Don't put anything in this directory yourself; store your static files
# in apps' "static/" subdirectories and in STATICFILES_DIRS.
# Example: "/home/media/media.lawrence.com/static/"
STATIC_ROOT = ''
# URL prefix for static files.
# Example: "http://media.lawrence.com/static/"
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
# Additional locations of static files
STATICFILES_DIRS = (
# Put strings here, like "/home/html/static" or "C:/www/django/static".
# Always use forward slashes, even on Windows.
# Don't forget to use absolute paths, not relative paths.
'/Users/cupcake/Documents/Workspaces/myDjangoProject/someOtherFolderPerhapsIfYouWant/static',
)
# List of finder classes that know how to find static files in
# various locations.
STATICFILES_FINDERS = (
'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.FileSystemFinder',
'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.AppDirectoriesFinder',
# 'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.DefaultStorageFinder',
)
Notice that I've left out the STATIC_ROOT here.
This is because I don't have the need for static files collection "just yet".
The collecting of static files is to allieviate(spelling) the problems with serving multiple diffrent staticfiles folders, so they merged the staticfiles app that was used normally for helping with this problem.
What this does, and it's described in the docs, is to take all the static files from all your apps and put them into one (1) folder for easier serving when putting your app into production.
So you're problem is that you've "missed" this step and that's why you're getting a 404 when trying to access them.
Therefore you need to use a absolute path to your static files ie. on a mac or unix system it should look something like this:
'/Users/cupcake/Documents/Workspaces/myDjangoProject/someOtherFolderPerhapsIfYouWant/static',
Also, you could simplify and "fix" the need of having a hardcoded path like that which I used for illustration and do like this
PROJECT_ROOT = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
STATICFILES_DIRS = (
PROJECT_ROOT + '/static/'
)
This would fix the portability problem as well. A good Stackoverflow post about that is found here
I hope I made it a bit clearer, otherwise please correct me if I'm wrong ^_^!
For collecting and how to manage static files in the newer versions of Django read this link
The staticfiles app

Change
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
set
STATIC_URL = 'http://yourdomain.com/static/'
it's unbelievable but, after 1 hour searching it solution solve my problem with static files and remove STATIC_ROOT from STATICFILES_DIRS.
STATICFILES_DIRS is just for collecting all the static in modules and store it in STATIC_ROOT.

Django static structure

I am trying to understand the static structure django 1.3 tries to pursue:
I have a Project with this structure:
Project
someapp
static
someapp
css
etcetera
models.py
views.py
urls.py
urls.py
manage.py
settings.py
Now I wish to overwrite the django admin.. So I have to set these settings in settings.py which I did like below (basepath is the shortcut path to the current directory):
# Absolute path to the directory static files should be collected to.
# Don't put anything in this directory yourself; store your static files
# in apps' "static/" subdirectories and in STATICFILES_DIRS.
# Example: "/home/media/media.lawrence.com/static/"
STATIC_ROOT = BASE_PATH+'/static/'
# URL prefix for static files.
# Example: "http://media.lawrence.com/static/"
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
# URL prefix for admin static files -- CSS, JavaScript and images.
# Make sure to use a trailing slash.
# Examples: "http://foo.com/static/admin/", "/static/admin/".
ADMIN_MEDIA_PREFIX = '/static/admin/'
# Additional locations of static files
STATICFILES_DIRS = (
# Put strings here, like "/home/html/static" or "C:/www/django/static".
# Always use forward slashes, even on Windows.
# Don't forget to use absolute paths, not relative paths.
)
If I use the manage.py command collectstatic, it collects all static files (including the admin files) in a directory 'static' as expected... (within the main project dir)
However it's content isn't served yet until I add that directory to the STATICFILES_DIRS tuple, however then I have to change the STATIC_ROOT directory setting because otherwise I'll get the error they cannot be the same...
I think I am overlooking the obvious because what I have to do to make it work seems redundant

For local development, try this structure
Project
Project (project directory with settings.py etc..)
stylesheets
someapp
static
base.css
With this in settings.py:
import os
ROOT_PATH = os.path.dirname(__file__)
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(ROOT_PATH, 'static')
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
STATICFILES_DIRS = (
os.path.join(ROOT_PATH, 'stylesheets'),
)
Run the local server with python manage.py runserver and go to http://localhost:8000/static/base.css
You should see the stylesheet.

STATICFILES_DIRS is a setting you use to declare non app-specific static files live in your project. STATIC_ROOT is where the static files get placed when they are collected.
From django's docs:
"Your project will probably also have static assets that aren’t tied to a particular app. The STATICFILES_DIRS setting is a tuple of filesystem directories to check when loading static files. It’s a search path that is by default empty. See the STATICFILES_DIRS docs how to extend this list of additional paths."
"Set the STATIC_ROOT setting to point to the filesystem path you'd like your static files collected to when you use the collectstatic management command."

How about:
STATICFILES_DIRS = (
# Put strings here, like "/home/html/static" or "C:/www/django/static".
# Always use forward slashes, even on Windows.
# Don't forget to use absolute paths, not relative paths.
STATIC_ROOT,
)