===================
The staticfiles app
===================

.. module:: django.contrib.staticfiles
   :synopsis: An app for handling static files.

.. versionadded:: 1.3

``django.contrib.staticfiles`` collects static files from each of your
applications (and any other places you specify) into a single location that
can easily be served in production.

.. seealso::

    For an introduction to the static files app and some usage examples, see
    :doc:`/howto/static-files`.

.. _staticfiles-settings:

Settings
========

.. highlight:: python

The following settings control the behavior of the staticfiles app. Only
:setting:`STATICFILES_ROOT` is required, but you'll probably also need to
configure :setting:`STATICFILES_URL` as well.

.. setting:: STATICFILES_ROOT

STATICFILES_ROOT
----------------

Default: ``''`` (Empty string)

The absolute path to the directory that holds static files::

   STATICFILES_ROOT = "/home/example.com/static/"

This is a **required setting** unless you've overridden
:setting:`STATICFILES_STORAGE` and are using a custom storage backend.

.. setting:: STATICFILES_URL

STATICFILES_URL
---------------

Default: ``'/static/'``

The URL that handles the files served from :setting:`STATICFILES_ROOT`, e.g.::

    STATICFILES_URL = '/site_media/static/'
   
... or perhaps::

    STATICFILES_URL = 'http://static.example.com/'

This should **always** have a trailing slash.

.. setting:: STATICFILES_DIRS

STATICFILES_DIRS
----------------

Default: ``[]``

This setting defines the additional locations the staticfiles app will traverse
if the :class:`FileSystemFinder` finder is enabled, e.g. if you use the
:djadmin:`collectstatic` or :djadmin:`findstatic` management command or use the
static file serving view.

This should be set to a list or tuple of strings that contain full paths to
your additional files directory(ies) e.g.::

    STATICFILES_DIRS = (
        "/home/special.polls.com/polls/static",
        "/home/polls.com/polls/static",
        "/opt/webfiles/common",
    )

In case you want to refer to files in one of the locations with a additional
namespace, you can **optionally** provide a prefix as ``(prefix, path)``
tuples, e.g.::

    STATICFILES_DIRS = (
        "/home/polls.com/polls/static",
        ("downloads", "/opt/webfiles/stats"),
    )

With this configuration, the :djadmin:`collectstatic` management command would
for example collect the stats files in a ``'downloads'`` directory. So
assuming you have :setting:`STATICFILES_URL` set ``'/static/'``, this would
allow you to refer to the file ``'/opt/webfiles/stats/polls_20101022.tar.gz'``
with ``'/static/downloads/polls_20101022.tar.gz'`` in your templates.

.. setting:: STATICFILES_STORAGE

STATICFILES_STORAGE
-------------------

Default: ``'django.contrib.staticfiles.storage.StaticFilesStorage'``

The file storage engine to use when collecting static files with the
:djadmin:`collectstatic` management command.

For an example, see :ref:`staticfiles-from-cdn`.

.. setting:: STATICFILES_FINDERS

STATICFILES_FINDERS
-------------------

Default::

    ("django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.FileSystemFinder",
     "django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.AppDirectoriesFinder")

The list of finder backends that know how to find static files in
various locations.

The default will find files stored in the :setting:`STATICFILES_DIRS` setting
(using :class:`django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.FileSystemFinder`) and in a
``static`` subdirectory of each app (using
:class:`django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.AppDirectoriesFinder`)

One finder is disabled by default:
:class:`django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.DefaultStorageFinder`. If added to
your :setting:`STATICFILES_FINDERS` setting, it will look for static files in
the default file storage as defined by the :setting:`DEFAULT_FILE_STORAGE`
setting.

.. note:: 

    When using the :class:`AppDirectoriesFinder` finder, make sure your apps can
    be found by Django's app loading mechanism. Simply include a ``models``
    module (an empty ``models.py`` file suffices) and add the app to the
    :setting:`INSTALLED_APPS` setting of your site.

Static file finders are currently considered a private interface, and this
interface is thus undocumented.

Management Commands
===================

.. highlight:: console

``django.contrib.staticfiles`` exposes two management commands.

collectstatic
-------------

.. django-admin:: collectstatic

Collects the static files into :setting:`STATICFILES_ROOT`.

Duplicate file names are by default resolved in a similar way to how template
resolution works: the file that is first found in one of the specified
locations will be used. If you're confused, the :djadmin:`findstatic` command
can help show you which files are found.

Files are searched by using the :setting:`enabled finders
<STATICFILES_FINDERS>`. The default is to look in all locations defined in
:setting:`STATICFILES_DIRS` and in the ``'static'`` directory of apps
specified by the :setting:`INSTALLED_APPS` setting.

Some commonly used options are:

``--noinput``
    Do NOT prompt the user for input of any kind.

``-i PATTERN`` or ``--ignore=PATTERN``
    Ignore files or directories matching this glob-style pattern. Use multiple
    times to ignore more.

``-n`` or ``--dry-run``
    Do everything except modify the filesystem.

``-l`` or ``--link``
    Create a symbolic link to each file instead of copying.

``--no-default-ignore``
    Don't ignore the common private glob-style patterns ``'CVS'``, ``'.*'``
    and ``'*~'``.

For a full list of options, refer to the commands own help by running::

   $ python manage.py collectstatic --help

findstatic
----------

.. django-admin:: findstatic

Searches for one or more relative paths with the enabled finders.

For example::

   $ python manage.py findstatic css/base.css admin/js/core.js
   /home/special.polls.com/core/static/css/base.css
   /home/polls.com/core/static/css/base.css
   /home/polls.com/src/django/contrib/admin/media/js/core.js

By default, all matching locations are found. To only return the first match
for each relative path, use the ``--first`` option::

   $ python manage.py findstatic css/base.css --first
   /home/special.polls.com/core/static/css/base.css

This is a debugging aid; it'll show you exactly which static file will be
collected for a given path.

Other Helpers
=============

The ``staticfiles`` context processor
-------------------------------------

.. function:: django.contrib.staticfiles.context_processors.staticfiles

This context processor adds the :setting:`STATICFILES_URL` into each template
context as the variable ``{{ STATICFILES_URL }}``. To use it, make sure that
``'django.contrib.staticfiles.context_processors.staticfiles'`` appears
somewhere in your :setting:`TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS` setting.

Remember, only templates rendered with :class:`~django.template.RequestContext`
will have acces to the data provided by this (and any) context processor.

.. templatetag:: get_staticfiles_prefix

The ``get_staticfiles_prefix`` templatetag
==========================================

.. highlight:: html+django

If you're not using :class:`~django.template.RequestContext`, or if you need
more control over exactly where and how :setting:`STATICFILES_URL` is injected
into the template, you can use the :ttag:`get_staticfiles_prefix` template tag
instead::

    {% load staticfiles %}
    <img src="{% get_staticfiles_prefix %}images/hi.jpg" />

There's also a second form you can use to avoid extra processing if you need
the value multiple times::

    {% load staticfiles %}
    {% get_staticfiles_prefix as STATIC_PREFIX %}

    <img src="{{ STATIC_PREFIX }}images/hi.jpg" />
    <img src="{{ STATIC_PREFIX }}images/hi2.jpg" />

.. _staticfiles-development-view:

Static file development view
----------------------------

.. highlight:: python

.. function:: django.contrib.staticfiles.views.serve(request, path)

This view function serves static files in development.

.. warning::

    This view will only work if :setting:`DEBUG` is ``True``.

    That's because this view is **grossly inefficient** and probably
    **insecure**. This is only intended for local development, and should
    **never be used in production**.

To use the view, add the following snippet to the end of your primary URL
configuration::

   from django.conf import settings
   
   if settings.DEBUG:
       urlpatterns = patterns('django.contrib.staticfiles.views',
           url(r'^static/(?P<path>.*)$', 'serve'),
       )

Note, the begin of the pattern (``r'^static/'``) should be your
:setting:`STATICFILES_URL` setting.

Since this is a bit finicky, there's also a helper function that'll do this for you:

.. function:: django.contrib.staticfiles.urls.staticfiles_urlpatterns()

This will return the proper URL pattern for serving static files to your
already defined pattern list. Use it like this::

   from django.contrib.staticfiles.urls import staticfiles_urlpatterns
   
   # ... the rest of your URLconf here ...
   
   urlpatterns += staticfiles_urlpatterns()

