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Add Static Files

Learn all about Add Static Files in this comprehensive tutorial.

5 min read intermediate
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  • •When building web applications, you probably want to add some static files like images or css files.
  • •Now you have a CSS file, with some CSS styling.
  • •For the rest of this tutorial, we will run with DEBUG = False, even in development, because that is the best way to learn how to work with Django.
  • •That is right, the example still does not work.

Create Static Folder

When building web applications, you probably want to add some static files like images or css files.

Start by creating a folder named static in your project, the same place where you created the templates folder:

The name of the folder has to be static.

python

Add a CSS file in the static folder, the name is your choice, we will call it myfirst.css in this example:

python

Open the CSS file and insert the following:

Modify the Template

Now you have a CSS file, with some CSS styling. The next step will be to include this file in a HTML template:

Open the templates/template.html file and add the following:

And:

Restart the server for the changes to take effect:

python

And check out the result in your own browser: 127.0.0.1:8000/testing/.

Note: Didn't Work? Just testing? If you just want to play around, and not going to deploy your work, you can set DEBUG = True in the settings.py file, and the example above will work. Plan to deploy? If you plan to deploy your work, you should set DEBUG = False in the settings.py file. The example above will fail, because Django has no built-in solution for serving static files, but there are other ways to serve static files, you will learn how in the next chapter.

This will make the example work, but we want you to choose DEBUG = False, because that is the best way to learn how to work with Django.

Choose Debug = False

For the rest of this tutorial, we will run with DEBUG = False, even in development, because that is the best way to learn how to work with Django.

Note: ALLOWED_HOSTS When using DEBUG = False you have to specify which host name(s) are allowed to host your work. You could choose '127.0.0.1' or 'localhost' which both represents the address of your local machine. We choose '*', which means any address are allowed to host this site. This should be change into a real domain name when you deploy your project to a public server.

Didn't Work?

That is right, the example still does not work.

You will have install a third-party library in order to handle static files.

There are many alternatives, we will show you how to use a Python library called WhiteNoise in the next chapter.

Module quiz

2 questions
1

Which of the following is true about Add Static Files?

2

What is the most common pitfall when working with Add Static Files?

Answer all questions to submit.

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