Static files not working in Django development - static-files

Question

I'm trying to follow the section in the Django docs called Managing static files. I am interested in finding out:
What I am doing wrong.
Or, what is wrong with the Django docs.
1) Make sure that django.contrib.staticfiles is included in your INSTALLED_APPS.
In the default settings.py file:
INSTALLED_APPS = (
'django.contrib.admin',
'django.contrib.auth',
'django.contrib.contenttypes',
'django.contrib.sessions',
'django.contrib.messages',
'django.contrib.staticfiles', #<****HERE*****
)
2) In your settings file, define STATIC_URL, for example: STATIC_URL = '/static/'
In the default settings.py:
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
3) In your templates, either hardcode the url like /static/my_app/myexample.jpg
In mysite2/mysite2/views.py:
from django.http import HttpResponse
def index(request):
return HttpResponse('''
<h2>Hello</h2>
<img src="/static/mysite2/Aerial03.jpg">
''')
4) Store your static files in a folder called static in your app. For example: my_app/static/my_app/myimage.jpg.
Here is my directory structure:
(django186p34)~/django_projects$ tree mysite2
mysite2
├── db.sqlite3
├── manage.py
└── mysite2
├── __init__.py
├── settings.py
├── static #<****HERE*****
│   └── mysite2
│   └── Aerial03.jpg
├── urls.py
├── views.py
└── wsgi.py
4 directories, 13 files
But after starting the server:
(django186p34)~/django_projects/mysite2$ python manage.py runserver
Performing system checks...
System check identified no issues (0 silenced).
November 26, 2015 - 02:44:57
Django version 1.8.6, using settings 'mysite2.settings'
Starting development server at http://127.0.0.1:8000/
Quit the server with CONTROL-C.
And then navigating in my browser to:
http://localhost:8000/
I see the text:
Hello
but the image is not found:
[Error] Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 404 http://localhost:8000/static/mysite2/Aerial03.jpg
I've tried many combinations of urls in my html and nothing works.
Here is settings.py in its entirety(I made no changes):
"""
Django settings for mysite2 project.
Generated by 'django-admin startproject' using Django 1.8.6.
For more information on this file, see
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.8/topics/settings/
For the full list of settings and their values, see
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.8/ref/settings/
"""
# Build paths inside the project like this: os.path.join(BASE_DIR, ...)
import os
BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))
# Quick-start development settings - unsuitable for production
# See https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.8/howto/deployment/checklist/
# SECURITY WARNING: keep the secret key used in production secret!
SECRET_KEY = 'pmaup3%)m09cs2goldduw2iogso%(#8cz0s-zmr%*e'
# SECURITY WARNING: don't run with debug turned on in production!
DEBUG = True
ALLOWED_HOSTS = []
# Application definition
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 = 'mysite2.urls'
TEMPLATES = [
{
'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
'DIRS': [],
'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 = 'mysite2.wsgi.application'
# Database
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.8/ref/settings/#databases
DATABASES = {
'default': {
'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
'NAME': os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'db.sqlite3'),
}
}
# Internationalization
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.8/topics/i18n/
LANGUAGE_CODE = 'en-us'
TIME_ZONE = 'UTC'
USE_I18N = True
USE_L10N = True
USE_TZ = True
# Static files (CSS, JavaScript, Images)
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.8/howto/static-files/
STATIC_URL = '/static/'

Answer 1

This fixed things:
INSTALLED_APPS = (
'django.contrib.admin',
'django.contrib.auth',
'django.contrib.contenttypes',
'django.contrib.sessions',
'django.contrib.messages',
'django.contrib.staticfiles',
'mysite2', #<*****HERE*****
)
And if you organize things so that you have apps inside your project, e.g.:
(django186p34)~/django_projects$ tree mysite3
mysite3
├── db.sqlite3
├── manage.py
├── myapp
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── admin.py
│   ├── migrations
│   │  
│   │  
│   ├── models.py
│   ├── static
│   │   └── myapp
│   │   └── Aerial03.jpg
│   ├── tests.py
│   ├── urls.py
│   └── views.py
└── mysite3
├── __init__.py
├── settings.py
├── urls.py
└── wsgi.py
8 directories, 24 files
Then in settings.py add your app name to INSTALLED_APPS:
INSTALLED_APPS = (
'django.contrib.admin',
'django.contrib.auth',
'django.contrib.contenttypes',
'django.contrib.sessions',
'django.contrib.messages',
'django.contrib.staticfiles',
'myapp', #<*****HERE*****
)
Everything else in the default settings.py stays the same. However, the urls are different:
mysite3/mysite3/urls.py:
from django.conf.urls import include, url
from django.contrib import admin
urlpatterns = [
url(r'^admin/', include(admin.site.urls)),
url(r'^myapp/', include('myapp.urls')),
]
mysite3/myapp/urls.py:
from django.conf.urls import url
from . import views
urlpatterns = [
url(r'^$', views.index, name='index'),
]
And in your browser, the url becomes:
http://localhost:8000/myapp/
myapp/views.py:
from django.shortcuts import render
# Create your views here.
from django.http import HttpResponse
def index(request):
return HttpResponse('''
<h2>Hello</h2>
<img src="/static/myapp/Aerial03.jpg">
''')