How to configure STATIC/MEDIA related settings

Let’s look at some code first and we can comment on it afterwards. I use the following setup in my projects:

import os

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

MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(_PATH, 'files', 'media')
MEDIA_URL = '/media/'

STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(_PATH, 'files', 'static')
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
STATICFILES_DIRS = (
    os.path.join(_PATH, 'static'),
)
STATICFILES_FINDERS = (
    'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.FileSystemFinder',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.AppDirectoriesFinder',
)

ADMIN_MEDIA_PREFIX = '/static/admin/'

_PATH should be obvious. But the way I use it is a little tricky here. Basically I am using a files directory that contains media, for MEDIA files, and static, for STATIC files, directories. This seperation is essential. You will pull your hair if you don’t seperate those two from the beginning. This will allow you to reuse them easily if you deploy a new version to a different location.

But why is files under the project directory? Because we need to check-in STATIC files? NO! It is just a convenience for the development environments. I strongly suggest overriding MEDIA_ROOT and STATIC_ROOT in your deployment settings and basically move the files directory outside of the project path. STATIC files that we check-in resides in <_PATH>/static. django.contrib.staticfiles app collects your STATIC files from your project specific directories and within your apps and copies everything in the right places inside STATIC_ROOT.

To sum up the points above:

• Check-in STATIC files in a folder within your project directory (see STATICFILES_DIRS & FileSystemFinder). If you are developing an app AppDirectoriesFinder will collect static files within the static directory in your app directory.
• Seperate the directories, where your MEDIA files are saved and where your STATIC files are collected (see STATIC_ROOT & MEDIA_ROOT).
• Keep your STATIC_ROOT and MEDIA_ROOT outside of your project directory in production environment.

One more thing to note is STATIC_URL and MEDIA_URL should both have a trailing slash. This will save you a lot of trouble later.

Next part deals with serving files in development environment and referencing them in code and templates.