.. _howto-static-files: ========================= How to serve static files ========================= .. module:: django.views.static :synopsis: Serving of static files during development. Django itself doesn't serve static (media) files, such as images, style sheets, or video. It leaves that job to whichever Web server you choose. The reasoning here is that standard Web servers, such as Apache_, lighttpd_ and Cherokee_, are much more fine-tuned at serving static files than a Web application framework. With that said, Django does support static files **during development**. You can use the :func:`django.views.static.serve` view to serve media files. .. _Apache: http://httpd.apache.org/ .. _lighttpd: http://www.lighttpd.net/ .. _Cherokee: http://www.cherokee-project.com/ .. seealso:: If you just need to serve the admin media from a nonstandard location, see the :djadminopt:`--adminmedia` parameter to :djadmin:`runserver`. The big, fat disclaimer ======================= Using this method is **inefficient** and **insecure**. Do not use this in a production setting. Use this only for development. For information on serving static files in an Apache production environment, see the :ref:`Django mod_python documentation `. How to do it ============ Here's the formal definition of the :func:`~django.views.static.serve` view: .. function:: def serve(request, path, document_root, show_indexes=False): To use it, just put this in your :ref:`URLconf `:: (r'^site_media/(?P.*)$', 'django.views.static.serve', {'document_root': '/path/to/media'}), ...where ``site_media`` is the URL where your media will be rooted, and ``/path/to/media`` is the filesystem root for your media. This will call the :func:`~django.views.static.serve` view, passing in the path from the URLconf and the (required) ``document_root`` parameter. Given the above URLconf: * The file ``/path/to/media/foo.jpg`` will be made available at the URL ``/site_media/foo.jpg``. * The file ``/path/to/media/css/mystyles.css`` will be made available at the URL ``/site_media/css/mystyles.css``. * The file ``/path/bar.jpg`` will not be accessible, because it doesn't fall under the document root. Of course, it's not compulsory to use a fixed string for the ``'document_root'`` value. You might wish to make that an entry in your settings file and use the setting value there. That will allow you and other developers working on the code to easily change the value as required. For example, if we have a line in ``settings.py`` that says:: STATIC_DOC_ROOT = '/path/to/media' ...we could write the above :ref:`URLconf ` entry as:: from django.conf import settings ... (r'^site_media/(?P.*)$', 'django.views.static.serve', {'document_root': settings.STATIC_DOC_ROOT}), Be careful not to use the same path as your :setting:`ADMIN_MEDIA_PREFIX` (which defaults to ``/media/``) as this will overwrite your URLconf entry. Directory listings ================== Optionally, you can pass the ``show_indexes`` parameter to the :func:`~django.views.static.serve` view. This is ``False`` by default. If it's ``True``, Django will display file listings for directories. For example:: (r'^site_media/(?P.*)$', 'django.views.static.serve', {'document_root': '/path/to/media', 'show_indexes': True}), You can customize the index view by creating a template called ``static/directory_index.html``. That template gets two objects in its context: * ``directory`` -- the directory name (a string) * ``file_list`` -- a list of file names (as strings) in the directory Here's the default ``static/directory_index.html`` template: .. code-block:: html+django Index of {{ directory }}

Index of {{ directory }}

{{ f }}

.. versionchanged:: 1.0.3 Prior to Django 1.0.3, there was a bug in the view that provided directory listings. The template that was loaded had to be called ``static/directory_listing`` (with no ``.html`` extension). For backwards compatibility with earlier versions, Django will still load templates with the older (no extension) name, but it will prefer a the ``directory_index.html`` version. Limiting use to DEBUG=True ========================== Because URLconfs are just plain Python modules, you can use Python logic to make the static-media view available only in development mode. This is a handy trick to make sure the static-serving view doesn't slip into a production setting by mistake. Do this by wrapping an ``if DEBUG`` statement around the :func:`django.views.static.serve` inclusion. Here's a full example URLconf:: from django.conf.urls.defaults import * from django.conf import settings urlpatterns = patterns('', (r'^articles/2003/$', 'news.views.special_case_2003'), (r'^articles/(?P\d{4})/$', 'news.views.year_archive'), (r'^articles/(?P\d{4})/(?P\d{2})/$', 'news.views.month_archive'), (r'^articles/(?P\d{4})/(?P\d{2})/(?P\d+)/$', 'news.views.article_detail'), ) if settings.DEBUG: urlpatterns += patterns('', (r'^site_media/(?P.*)$', 'django.views.static.serve', {'document_root': '/path/to/media'}), ) This code is straightforward. It imports the settings and checks the value of the :setting:`DEBUG` setting. If it evaluates to ``True``, then ``site_media`` will be associated with the ``django.views.static.serve`` view. If not, then the view won't be made available. Of course, the catch here is that you'll have to remember to set ``DEBUG=False`` in your production settings file. But you should be doing that anyway.