Django 2.2 Not Serving Static Files

Question

I am currently working through some tutorials to enhance my knowledge of Django. In doing so, I decided to use to most recent version of Django. I have been able to overcome most of the divergences between my code and that of the tutorial except for one - static files are not being served. Now, I am not fully sure that the difference is strictly due to the Django version. Here is what is going on.

I have the following project structure:

settings.py

STATIC_URL = '/static/'

STATIC_FILES = (
    os.path.join(BASE_DIR, "static"),
)

STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join (os.path.dirname(BASE_DIR), "staticfiles", "static")

TEMPLATES = [
    {
        'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
        'DIRS': [os.path.join(BASE_DIR, "templates")],
        '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',
            ],
        },
    },
]

What is interesting is that with this configuration, the project is able to find templates successfully. However, as mentioned above, it cannot find the static files. Why is that?

Also, this tutorial sets up an unusual configuration in that the static and templates directories are located inside the main app's directory, whereas I typically have them one level higher, i.e., in the project root's directory. Could this be a part of the problem? What in the settings of this particular project makes Django look for files one directory lower? The settings seem the same as those of other project I had done. However, those project contained the static and templates directories in the project's root directory.

Any help and clarification is appreciated.

Edit:

urls.py

from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import path
from .views import home

from django.conf import settings
from django.conf.urls.static import static

urlpatterns = [
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
    path('', home, name='home')
] + static(settings.STATIC_URL, document_root=settings.STATIC_ROOT)

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 09 '19 at 14:10

1

try replacing this:

STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join (os.path.dirname(BASE_DIR), "staticfiles", "static")

with

STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join (os.path.dirname(BASE_DIR), "static")

Also provide the status of files (like 404 messages)

answered Jun 09 '19 at 14:10

Ashraf Emad

183
10

That didn't help. Actually, that line was my addition as I was trying to get things working. – MadPhysicist Jun 09 '19 at 14:12
try moving static directory one level up and try again – Ashraf Emad Jun 09 '19 at 14:13
oh sorry, can you try putting this in your settings: STATICFILES_DIRS = ( os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static'), ) instead of STATIC_ROOT – Ashraf Emad Jun 09 '19 at 14:17

Mir Stephen · Answer 2 · 2019-06-09T15:19:03.443

To serve static files you need to add the following configuration in urls.py as:

from django.conf import settings
from django.conf.urls.static import static

urlpatterns = [
    # ... the rest of your URLconf goes here ...
] + static(settings.STATIC_URL, document_root=settings.STATIC_ROOT)

Next, I believe it is a good practice to put static and templates within their own apps, this is useful if you want to make that app plug-able any near future.

Or it is also a good practice to gather all static files in project level directory and add the following in settings to identify it.

STATICFILES_DIRS = [
    os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static'),
]

edit: I just see the updated question. Try adding this:

from django.conf import settings
from django.conf.urls.static import static

urlpatterns = [
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
    path('', home, name='home')
]

if settings.DEBUG:
    urlpatterns += static(settings.STATIC_URL, document_root=settings.STATIC_ROOT)

This says, as long as we are in debug mode serve the static files.

I have made an edit. Please see my existing `urls.py` – MadPhysicist Jun 09 '19 at 14:22 — MadPhysicist, Jun 09 '19 at 14:22

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 09 '19 at 14:17

1

STATIC_FILES doesn't mean anything to Django, as far as I know, although maybe you are using it for another purpose.

The way you had STATIC_ROOT defined it was pointing to a non-existent directory.

There is a good reference in StackOverflow here

answered Jun 09 '19 at 14:17

Deepstop

3,627
2
8
21

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 09 '19 at 15:44

1

try this:

STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join (BASE_DIR, "taskbuster", "static")

answered Jun 09 '19 at 15:44

katoozi

388
2
6

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 09 '19 at 18:49

I was able to solve the issue by changing the settings to the following:

STATIC_URL = '/static/'

STATICFILES_DIRS = (
    os.path.join(BASE_DIR, "static"),
)

STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join (os.path.dirname(BASE_DIR), "static")

Furthermore, it was helpful to read the following documentation when trying to understand how to fix it

https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/2.2/ref/settings/#std:setting-STATICFILES_FINDERS

Particularly, this explained clearly what Django did:

The default will find files stored in the STATICFILES_DIRS setting (using django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.FileSystemFinder) and in a static subdirectory of each app (using django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.AppDirectoriesFinder). If multiple files with the same name are present, the first file that is found will be used.

Django 2.2 Not Serving Static Files

5 Answers5

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