Static files not found - Deploying Django on Heroku

Question

I am trying to deploy a Django site on Heroku, but I'm running into problems getting the app to locate my static files. I have used python manage.py collectstatic to collect my static files into a staticfiles folder, but my app still doesn't seem to be able to find them. I continue to get errors like this in my log:

I'm not sure if I am referencing the paths properly. The path's that are set to images/stylesheets/scripts in the code are using the path to the original static folder used in development. Do I have to rewrite all of those paths to point to the new staticfiles folder I created with the collectstatic command, or is there some other issue that could be causing this?

My settings.py looks like this:

import os

BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(__file__))

DEBUG = False

ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['www.tomdeldridge.com']

INSTALLED_APPS = (
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
)

MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES = (
    'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.auth.middleware.SessionAuthenticationMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware',
)

ROOT_URLCONF = 'tomdeldridge.urls'

TEMPLATES = [
    {
        'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
        'DIRS': ['tomdeldridge/templates/tomdeldridge/'],
        'APP_DIRS': True,
        'OPTIONS': {
            'context_processors': [
                'django.template.context_processors.debug',
                'django.template.context_processors.request',
                'django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth',
                'django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages',
            ],
        },
    },
]

WSGI_APPLICATION = 'tomdeldridge.wsgi.application'

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
        'NAME': os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'db.sqlite3'),
    }
}

LANGUAGE_CODE = 'en-us'
TIME_ZONE = 'UTC'
USE_I18N = True
USE_L10N = True
USE_TZ = True

STATICFILES_DIRS = (
    os.path.join(
        os.path.dirname(__file__),
        'static',
    ),
)

STATIC_ROOT = 'staticfiles'
STATIC_URL = '/static/'

My wsgi.py file:

import os

from django.core.wsgi import get_wsgi_application
from dj_static import Cling

application = Cling(get_wsgi_application())

os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "tomdeldridge.settings")

My directory structure:

The images I'm trying to reference in my template definitely exist (they work fine when I run the app locally.) I reference them like this:

{% static 'tomdeldridge/images/computer-2.png' %}

Do I have to use a server like nginx to serve static files in deployment? I am totally lost on where to go from here, and I'm not really sure why it's necessary to reconfigure the entire static file structure just to deploy.

You haven't shown any of the relevant code: the settings, or how you're referencing the images in the template. — Daniel Roseman, Dec 06 '15 at 19:31
That's not quite enough of the directory structure; where is settings.py in relation to static? And also show the template where you're using the static files. — Daniel Roseman, Dec 06 '15 at 19:41
Fair enough. I added in an image of the whole directory structure, and an example of code I use to reference images in the template. Anything else that would be helpful? — 123, Dec 06 '15 at 19:44

Tomasz Jakub Rup · Answer 1 · 2015-12-06T22:34:28.043

1

Install dj-static package

$ pip install dj-static

Configure your static assets in settings.py:

DEBUG = False
BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(__file__))
STATICFILES_DIRS = (
    os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static'),
)
STATIC_ROOT = 'staticfiles'
STATIC_URL = '/static/'

Then, update your wsgi.py file to use dj-static:

import os

os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "tomdeldridge.settings")

from django.core.wsgi import get_wsgi_application
from dj_static import Cling

application = Cling(get_wsgi_application())

edited Dec 06 '15 at 22:34

answered Dec 06 '15 at 20:46

Tomasz Jakub Rup

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My settings.py, and wsgi.py look exactly like you said, and I installed dj_static successfully, and pushed the updated git repository, but I keep getting the same error saying the path to the static files can't be found. – 123 Dec 06 '15 at 21:26
I updated the question with complete `settings.py` and `wsgi.py` code. – 123 Dec 06 '15 at 21:34
Move `os.environ.setdefault...` to the top. – Tomasz Jakub Rup Dec 06 '15 at 21:37
Unfortunately that didn't seem to fix the issue. – 123 Dec 06 '15 at 21:41

Static files not found - Deploying Django on Heroku

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