Why is my static CSS not working in Django?
Question:
I am having problem with my static CSS not working for my Django web app. I have followed the directions from the Django Static Link tutorial on handling static files, but it is still not working.
Settings
# 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 = '/Users/a9austin/Development/sites/AlphaSocks/src/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/a9austin/Development/sites/AlphaSocks/src/staticfiles'
)
view
#from django.http import HttpResponse
from django.shortcuts import render_to_response
def index(request):
return render_to_response('index.html')
index.html
<link rel="stylesheet" href="{{STATIC_URL}}css/style.css" type="text/css" media="screen" >
And my directory organization is
src->staticfiles->css->style.css
Answers:
For Django to serve static files, you have to make sure you have a couple of settings.
STATIC_URL
This setting specifies what url should static files map to under. You have that done already.
STATICFILES_DIRS
This specifies all the folders on your system where Django should look for static files. The idea is that you might have a couple of apps within your project, and each app might require a different set of static files. So for organizational purposes, each app might contain a static directory where it will store only it’s static files. So then Django has to have a way to know where those directories are. This is what this setting is for.
STATIC_ROOT
This setting specifies where Django will copy all the static files to and not where the static files are already at. The idea is that once you leave development into production, Django can’t serve static files anymore due to issues I will not go here (it’s in the article). However for production, all static files should be in a single directory, instead of in many like specified in STATICFILES_DIRS. So this setting specifies a directory to which Django will copy all the static files from from all files within STATICFILES_DIRS by running the following command:
$ python manage.py collectstatic
Please note this is only necessary once you go into production and also that the directory specified here cannot be the same as any directory specified in STATICFILES_DIRS.
Urls.py
In development for Django to serve your static files, you have to include the static urls in your urls.py:
from django.contrib.staticfiles.urls import staticfiles_urlpatterns
urlpatterns = ...
urlpatterns += staticfiles_urlpatterns()
Once you will complete all of the above things, your static files should be served as long as you have DEBUG = True. Out of the list above, you seem to only complete STATIC_URL. Also please note that all the steps I described above are in the docs you linked in your question (link). It might be a bit confusing in the beginning but if you read it a couple of times, it becomes clearer.
Adding RequestContext to the response should load the STATIC_URL variable into the template.
Try changing:
from django.shortcuts import render_to_response
def index(request):
return render_to_response('index.html')
to:
from django.shortcuts import render_to_response
from django.template.context import RequestContext
def index(request):
return render_to_response("index.html", context_instance=RequestContext(request))
Refer to the Django Documentation on Referring to static files in templates for more information.
There is an easy way if you feel that your CSS isn’t working.
If your project isn’t way too huge then you can just make
the CSS file in the same file as the HTML.
And then run it.That way it will run for example
`
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Promantus Bot</title>
<style type="text/css">
* {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}
body {
background-color:#FF625F;
}
h1, p {
font-family: sans-serif;
text-align: center;
color: #323330;
font-size: 100px;
}
p {
font-size: 30px;
}
#output, #container {
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
margin-top: 100px;
}
input {
background-color: #eee;
border: none;
font-family: sans-serif;
color: #000;
padding: 15px 32px;
text-align: center;
text-decoration: none;
display: inline-block;
font-size: 30px;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div id="output"></div>
<div id="container">
<input type="text" id="input" value="">
</div>
</body>
</html>
`
It's going to run fine this way.
After doing all, setting DEBUG= True, python collectstatic, clearing cache, opening in incognito mode if the problem still exists copy your .css file into another new .css file in static folder, and then run collectstatic command. This worked out for me.
I hope this will help you.
Try clearing your cache. If you are using Google chrome go to your settings>clear browsing data> select clear cached images and files then click clear data
If there is no problem in coding and no errors shown.
Then you can do this this to try to solve the problem.
Clear your Cache:
If you are using Google chrome go to your settings –> clear browsing data –>
select clear cached images and files then click clear data
If this is happening to you in development mode, make sure you set DEBUG=True in your settings.py file. Also make sure that the MEDIA_URL and MEDIA_ROOT are set in your settings.py file like so :
MEDIA_URL = '/mymediafolder/'
MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'mymediafolder')
And then in your main urls file myapp/urls.py you must have the following :
from django.conf.urls import url, include
from . import views
from django.contrib.staticfiles.urls import staticfiles_urlpatterns
from django.conf.urls.static import static
from django.conf import settings
urlpatterns = [
#Your url patterns here
]
urlpatterns += staticfiles_urlpatterns()
urlpatterns += static(settings.MEDIA_URL, document_root=settings.MEDIA_ROOT)
The staticfiles_urlpatterns() is used to serve static files in development mode.
For me it was changing
<link rel="stylesheet" href=" {% static '/css/style.css' %} ">
to
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href=" {% static '/css/style.css' %} ">
Sometimes all it takes is just "Ctrl + F5"
A Total refresh of the page, does the trick.
Or Ctrl + Shift + R
I had to delete my staticfiles folder. It seemed like there was a similarly named file in it which was being read from or written to and this wasn’t the one my app was pulling from for the site. After I ran ‘collectstatic’ again, it re-added the staticfiles folder and contents and is now working and updating properly.
My solution may be silly, but maybe it will help someone. If you copy the line from the internet instead of typing it, make sure to adjust your quotation marks. Worked for me.
<link rel=”stylesheet” type="text/css" href="{% static 'styles.css' %}">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="{% static 'styles.css' %}">
I am having problem with my static CSS not working for my Django web app. I have followed the directions from the Django Static Link tutorial on handling static files, but it is still not working.
Settings
# 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 = '/Users/a9austin/Development/sites/AlphaSocks/src/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/a9austin/Development/sites/AlphaSocks/src/staticfiles'
)
view
#from django.http import HttpResponse
from django.shortcuts import render_to_response
def index(request):
return render_to_response('index.html')
index.html
<link rel="stylesheet" href="{{STATIC_URL}}css/style.css" type="text/css" media="screen" >
And my directory organization is
src->staticfiles->css->style.css
For Django to serve static files, you have to make sure you have a couple of settings.
STATIC_URL
This setting specifies what url should static files map to under. You have that done already.
STATICFILES_DIRS
This specifies all the folders on your system where Django should look for static files. The idea is that you might have a couple of apps within your project, and each app might require a different set of static files. So for organizational purposes, each app might contain a static directory where it will store only it’s static files. So then Django has to have a way to know where those directories are. This is what this setting is for.
STATIC_ROOT
This setting specifies where Django will copy all the static files to and not where the static files are already at. The idea is that once you leave development into production, Django can’t serve static files anymore due to issues I will not go here (it’s in the article). However for production, all static files should be in a single directory, instead of in many like specified in STATICFILES_DIRS. So this setting specifies a directory to which Django will copy all the static files from from all files within STATICFILES_DIRS by running the following command:
$ python manage.py collectstatic
Please note this is only necessary once you go into production and also that the directory specified here cannot be the same as any directory specified in STATICFILES_DIRS.
Urls.py
In development for Django to serve your static files, you have to include the static urls in your urls.py:
from django.contrib.staticfiles.urls import staticfiles_urlpatterns
urlpatterns = ...
urlpatterns += staticfiles_urlpatterns()
Once you will complete all of the above things, your static files should be served as long as you have DEBUG = True. Out of the list above, you seem to only complete STATIC_URL. Also please note that all the steps I described above are in the docs you linked in your question (link). It might be a bit confusing in the beginning but if you read it a couple of times, it becomes clearer.
Adding RequestContext to the response should load the STATIC_URL variable into the template.
Try changing:
from django.shortcuts import render_to_response
def index(request):
return render_to_response('index.html')to:
from django.shortcuts import render_to_response
from django.template.context import RequestContext
def index(request):
return render_to_response("index.html", context_instance=RequestContext(request)) Refer to the Django Documentation on Referring to static files in templates for more information.
There is an easy way if you feel that your CSS isn’t working.
If your project isn’t way too huge then you can just make
the CSS file in the same file as the HTML.
And then run it.That way it will run for example
`
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Promantus Bot</title>
<style type="text/css">
* {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}
body {
background-color:#FF625F;
}
h1, p {
font-family: sans-serif;
text-align: center;
color: #323330;
font-size: 100px;
}
p {
font-size: 30px;
}
#output, #container {
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
margin-top: 100px;
}
input {
background-color: #eee;
border: none;
font-family: sans-serif;
color: #000;
padding: 15px 32px;
text-align: center;
text-decoration: none;
display: inline-block;
font-size: 30px;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div id="output"></div>
<div id="container">
<input type="text" id="input" value="">
</div>
</body>
</html>
`
It's going to run fine this way.
After doing all, setting DEBUG= True, python collectstatic, clearing cache, opening in incognito mode if the problem still exists copy your .css file into another new .css file in static folder, and then run collectstatic command. This worked out for me.
I hope this will help you.
Try clearing your cache. If you are using Google chrome go to your settings>clear browsing data> select clear cached images and files then click clear data
If there is no problem in coding and no errors shown.
Then you can do this this to try to solve the problem.
Clear your Cache:
If you are using Google chrome go to your settings –> clear browsing data –>
select clear cached images and files then click clear data
If this is happening to you in development mode, make sure you set DEBUG=True in your settings.py file. Also make sure that the MEDIA_URL and MEDIA_ROOT are set in your settings.py file like so :
MEDIA_URL = '/mymediafolder/'
MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'mymediafolder')
And then in your main urls file myapp/urls.py you must have the following :
from django.conf.urls import url, include
from . import views
from django.contrib.staticfiles.urls import staticfiles_urlpatterns
from django.conf.urls.static import static
from django.conf import settings
urlpatterns = [
#Your url patterns here
]
urlpatterns += staticfiles_urlpatterns()
urlpatterns += static(settings.MEDIA_URL, document_root=settings.MEDIA_ROOT)
The staticfiles_urlpatterns() is used to serve static files in development mode.
For me it was changing
<link rel="stylesheet" href=" {% static '/css/style.css' %} ">
to
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href=" {% static '/css/style.css' %} ">
Sometimes all it takes is just "Ctrl + F5"
A Total refresh of the page, does the trick.
Or Ctrl + Shift + R
I had to delete my staticfiles folder. It seemed like there was a similarly named file in it which was being read from or written to and this wasn’t the one my app was pulling from for the site. After I ran ‘collectstatic’ again, it re-added the staticfiles folder and contents and is now working and updating properly.
My solution may be silly, but maybe it will help someone. If you copy the line from the internet instead of typing it, make sure to adjust your quotation marks. Worked for me.
<link rel=”stylesheet” type="text/css" href="{% static 'styles.css' %}">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="{% static 'styles.css' %}">