What is the path that Django uses for locating and loading templates?

For Django 1.6.6:

BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(__file__))
TEMPLATE_DIRS = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'templates')

Also static and media for debug and production mode:

STATIC_URL = '/static/'
MEDIA_URL = '/media/'
if DEBUG:
    STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static')
    MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'media')
else:
    STATIC_ROOT = %REAL_PATH_TO_PRODUCTION_STATIC_FOLDER%
    MEDIA_ROOT = %REAL_PATH_TO_PRODUCTION_MEDIA_FOLDER%

Into urls.py you must add:

from django.conf.urls import patterns, include, url
from django.contrib import admin
from django.conf.urls.static import static
from django.conf import settings

from news.views import Index

admin.autodiscover()

urlpatterns = patterns('',
    url(r'^admin/', include(admin.site.urls)),
    ...
    )

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

In Django 1.8 you can set template paths, backend and other parameters for templates in one dictionary (settings.py):

TEMPLATES = [
    {
        'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
        'DIRS': [
            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',
            ],
        },
    },
]

Official docs.

I also had issues with this part of the tutorial (used tutorial for version 1.7).

My mistake was that I only edited the ‘Django administration’ string, and did not pay enough attention to the manual.

This is the line from django/contrib/admin/templates/admin/base_site.html:

<h1 id="site-name"><a href="{% url 'admin:index' %}">{{ site_header|default:_('Django administration') }}</a></h1>

But after some time and frustration it became clear that there was the ‘site_header or default:_’ statement, which should be removed. So after removing the statement (like the example in the manual everything worked like expected).

Example manual:

<h1 id="site-name"><a href="{% url 'admin:index' %}">Polls Administration</a></h1>

If using Django settings as installed, then why not just use its baked-in, predefined BASE_DIR and TEMPLATES? In the pip installed Django(v1.8), I get:

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


TEMPLATES = [
    {
        'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
        'DIRS': [
            ### ADD YOUR DIRECTORY HERE LIKE SO:
            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',
            ],
        },
    },
]

Smart solution in Django 2.0.3 for keeping templates in project directory (/root/templates/app_name):

settings.py

BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))
TEMP_DIR = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'templates')
...
TEMPLATES = [
{
    'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
    'DIRS': [TEMP_DIR],
...

in views.py just add such template path:

app_name/html_name

Alright Let’s say you have a brand new project, if so you would go to settings.py file and search for TEMPLATES once you found it you just paste this line os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'template') in 'DIRS' At the end, you should get somethings like this :

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

If you want to know where your BASE_DIR directory is located type these 3 simple commands:

python3 manage.py shell

Once you’re in the shell :

>>> from django.conf import settings
>>> settings.BASE_DIR

PS: If you named your template folder with another name, you would change it here too.

In django 2.2 this is explained here

https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/2.2/howto/overriding-templates/

import os

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

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...,
    'blog',
    ...,
]

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

basically BASE_DIR is your django project directory, same dir where manage.py is.

    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',
                ],
            },
        },
    ]

In django 3.1, go to setting of your project and import os

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',
            ],
        },
    },
]

Contrary to some answers posted in this thread, adding 'DIRS': ['templates'] has no effect – it’s redundant – since templates is the default path where Django looks for templates.

If you are attempting to reference an app’s template, ensure that your app is in the list of INSTALLED_APPS in the main project settings.py.

INSTALLED_APPS': [
   # ...
   'my_app',
]

Quoting Django’s Templates documentation:

class DjangoTemplates¶

Set BACKEND to ‘django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates’ to configure a Django template engine.

When APP_DIRS is True, DjangoTemplates engines look for templates
in the templates subdirectory of installed applications. This generic name was kept for backwards-compatibility.

When you create an application for your project, there’s no templates directory inside the application directory. Django admin doesn’t create the directory for you by default.

Below’s another paragraph from Django Tutorial documentation, which is even clearer:

Your project’s TEMPLATES setting describes how Django will load and render templates. The default settings file configures a DjangoTemplates backend whose APP_DIRS option is set to True. By convention DjangoTemplates looks for a “templates” subdirectory in each of the INSTALLED_APPS.

You can easily add template folder in settings.py folder, os.path is deprecated in django 3.1, so you can use path instead of os.path. You just have to import path in settings.py, you have to specify the base directory, then you have to specify template path, and last but not the least, you have to add template folder path in TEMPLATES = [{}], for example:

from pathlib import Path

BASE_DIR = Path(__file__).resolve().parent.parent

TEMPLATE_DIR = Path(BASE_DIR, 'templates') (you can name TEMPLATE_DIR to any name)

TEMPLATES = [
{

    'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',

    'DIRS': [TEMPLATE_DIR],

    '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',

        ],
    },
},

]

By default django looks for the template folder in apps. But if you want to use template folder from root of project, please create a template folder on root of project and do the followings in settings.py:

import os

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

One interesting thing I noted for templates searching

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

if the app folder have templates sub-folder then only it is searched and listed under Template-loader postmortem

If app/templates do not exist, it is not listed in error messages. Understanding this will prevent newbee to add template folders via DIRS directive

This is for DJANGO version 4.x.x

To add templates folder open file settings.py and modify
‘DIRS’: [BASE_DIR / ‘templates’],

TEMPLATES = [
    {
        'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
        'DIRS': [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',
            ],
        },
    },
]