Django — Can't get static CSS files to load

Question:

I’m running Django’s development server (runserver) on my local machine (Mac OS X) and cannot get the CSS files to load.

Here are the relevant entries in settings.py:

STATIC_ROOT = '/Users/username/Projects/mysite/static/'

STATIC_URL = '/static/'

STATICFILES_DIRS = (
'/Users/thaymore/Projects/mysite/cal/static',
)

STATICFILES_FINDERS = (
'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.FileSystemFinder',
'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.AppDirectoriesFinder',
#'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.DefaultStorageFinder',
)

INSTALLED_APPS = (
# other apps ...
'django.contrib.staticfiles',
)

In my views.py I’m requesting the context:

return render_to_response("cal/main.html",dict(entries=entries),context_instance=RequestContext(request))

And in my template the {{ STATIC_URL }} renders correctly:

<link type="text/css" href="{{ STATIC_URL }}css/main.css" />

Turns into:

<link type="text/css" href="/static/css/main.css"/>

Which is where the file is actually located. I also ran collectstatic to make sure all the files were collected.

I also have the following lines in my urls.py:

from django.contrib.staticfiles.urls import staticfiles_urlpatterns

urlpatterns += staticfiles_urlpatterns()

I’m new to Django so am probably missing something simple — would appreciate any help.

Asked By: tchaymore

||

Answers:

Read this carefully:
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/contrib/staticfiles/

Is django.contrib.staticfiles in your INSTALLED_APPS in settings.py?

Is DEBUG=False? If so, you need to call runserver with the --insecure parameter:

python manage.py runserver --insecure

collectstatic has no bearing on serving files via the development server. It is for collecting the static files in one location STATIC_ROOT for your web server to find them. In fact, running collectstatic with your STATIC_ROOT set to a path in STATICFILES_DIRS is a bad idea. You should double-check to make sure your CSS files even exist now.

Answered By: GDorn

Are these missing from your settings.py? I am pasting one of my project’s settings:

TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS = ("django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth",
"django.core.context_processors.debug",
"django.core.context_processors.i18n",
"django.core.context_processors.media",
"django.core.context_processors.static",
"django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages")

Also, this is what I have in my urls.py:

urlpatterns += patterns('', (
        r'^static/(?P<path>.*)$',
        'django.views.static.serve',
        {'document_root': 'static'}
))
Answered By: Geo

You had same path in STATICFILES_DIRS AND STATIC_ROOT, I ran into the same issue and below was the exception –

ImproperlyConfigured: The STATICFILES_DIRS setting should not contain the STATIC_ROOT setting

For local you don’t need STATICFILES_DIRS, as anyway you don’t need to run collectstatic. Once you comment it, it should work fine.

Answered By: Mutant

Have you added into your templates:

{% load staticfiles %}

This loads what’s needed, but for some reason I have experienced that sometimes work without this… ???

Answered By: viridis

I tried this model and it worked.

Changes in settings as per the django project created with shell

"django-admin.py startproject xxx"# here xxx is my app name

modify the folder as below structure loading our static files to run on server

Structure of xxx is:

>     .
>     |-- manage.py
>     |-- templates
>     |   `-- home.html
>     `-- test_project
>         |-- __init__.py
>         |-- settings.py
>         |-- static
>         |   |-- images
>         |   |   `-- 01.jpg
>         |   |-- style.css
>         |-- urls.py
>         `-- wsgi.py

– modifications in Settings.py

import os
INSTALLED_APPS = (    'xxx',# my app is to be load into it)

STATIC_ROOT = ''
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
PROJECT_DIR = os.path.dirname(__file__)
TEMPLATE_DIRS = (      os.path.join(PROJECT_DIR, '../templates'),)#include this 

– modifications in urls.py

from django.conf.urls import patterns, include, url
from django.views.generic import TemplateView

class DirectTemplateView(TemplateView):
    extra_context = None
    def get_context_data(self, **kwargs):
        context = super(self.__class__, self).get_context_data(**kwargs)
        if self.extra_context is not None:
            for key, value in self.extra_context.items():
                if callable(value):
                    context[key] = value()
                else:
                    context[key] = value
        return context

urlpatterns = patterns('', 
    url(r'^$', DirectTemplateView.as_view(template_name="home.html")), )

– home.html

<html>
    <head>
        <link href="{{STATIC_URL}}style.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
    </head>
    <body>
        <h1>This is home for some_app</h1>
      <img src="{{STATIC_URL}}/images/01.jpg" width=150px;height=150px; alt="Smiley ">
    </body>
</html>
Answered By: ayu for u

DEBUG = True in my local settings did it for me.

Answered By: webjay

I had to use

STATICFILES_DIRS = ( '/home/USERNAME/webapps/django/PROJECT/static/', )

That helped me.

Answered By: jwebuser

See if your main application (where the static directory is located) is included in your INSTALLED_APPS.

Files are searched by using the enabled finders. The default is to look in all locations defined in STATICFILES_DIRS and in the ‘static’ directory of apps specified by the INSTALLED_APPS setting.

Answered By: Guy de Carufel

added

PROJECT_ROOT = os.path.normpath(os.path.dirname(__file__))
STATICFILES_DIRS = ( os.path.join(PROJECT_ROOT, "static"), )

and removed STATIC_ROOT from settings.py, It worked for me

Answered By: Vinner

Another simple thing to try is to stop, and then restart the server e.g.

$ python manage.py runserver

I looked into the other answers, but restarting the server worked for me.

Answered By: ibowman

These steps work for me, just see Load Static Files (CSS, JS, & Images) in Django

I use Django 1.10.

  1. create a folder static on the same level of settings.py, my settings.py‘s path is ~/djcode/mysite/mysite/settings.py, so this dir is ~/djcode/mysite/mysite/static/;
  2. create two folders static_dirs and static_root in static, that’s ~/djcode/mysite/mysite/static/static_dirs/ and ~/djcode/mysite/mysite/static/static_root/;
  3. write settings.py like this:

    # Static files (CSS, JavaScript, Images)
    
    # https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.10/howto/static-files/
    
    STATIC_URL = '/static/'
    
    STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'mysite', 'static', 'static_root')
    
    STATICFILES_DIRS = (
        os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'mysite', 'static', 'static_dirs'),
    )
    
  4. do this command $ python manage.py collectstatic in shell;

  5. create a folder css in static_dirs and put into your own .css file, your css file’ path is ~/djcode/mysite/mysite/static/static_dirs/css/my_style.css;

  6. change <link> tag in .html file: <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="{% static 'css/my_style.css' %}">,

Finally this link’s path is http://192.168.1.100:8023/static/css/my_style.css

Bingo!

Answered By: Belter

Add this "django.core.context_processors.static", context processor in your settings.py

TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS = (
"django.core.context_processors.static",

)

Answered By: cjahangir

For recent releases of Django, You have to configure static files in settings.py as,

STATIC_URL = '/static/' # the path in url

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

and use it with static template tag,

{% load static %}
<link rel="stylesheet" href="{% static 'css/bootstrap.css' %}">
Answered By: All Іѕ Vаиітy

Add the following code to your settings.py:

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

After that, create the static folder at the root directory of your project.

To load the static files on templates use:

{% load static %}
  <img src="{% static "images/index.jpeg" %}" alt="My image"/>
Answered By: Alan Paul

You can just set STATIC_ROOT depending on whether you are running on your localhost or on your server. To identify that, refer to this post.

And you can rewrite you STATIC_ROOT configuration as:

import sys

if 'runserver' in sys.argv:
    STATIC_ROOT = ''
else:
    STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static')
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
Answered By: Aslamah Rahman

If you set DEBUG=FALSE
you need to do follow steps

In your urls.py file:
add this line

from django.views.static import serve

url(r'^media/(?P<path>.*)$', serve,{'document_root': settings.MEDIA_ROOT}),
url(r'^static/(?P<path>.*)$', serve,{'document_root': settings.STATIC_ROOT}),

Answered By: Thusitha Deepal

I have the same issue (ununtu 16.04 server).

This helped me

python manage.py collectstatic –noinput

Answered By: alcoder

add following in settings.py

STATIC_URL = '/static/'
MEDIA_URL = '/media/'
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static')  
MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'media')
Answered By: Amandeep Singh

Two most Basis points to be noted for running Static files in Django Application are – Declare static file path in your settings.py file

STATIC_URL = '/static/'

Another important parameter is the web page in which you are using static keyword, you need to load the static files.

{% load static %}
Answered By: rathourdevesh

Go to your HTML page load static by

{% load static %}

Now only mistake I’ve made was this

My code:

<img src="**{% static** "images/index.jpeg" %}" alt="My image">

Updated:

<img src=**"{% static 'images/index.jpeg' %}' alt="My image"**>

You get it right

Answered By: Aditya Rajgor

I had same issue check your settings.py and make sure STATIC_URL = ‘/static/’
in my case first / at the beginning was missing and that was causing all static files not to work

Answered By: badger
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