Django MEDIA_URL and MEDIA_ROOT

Question

I'm trying to upload an image via the Django admin and then view that image either in a page on the frontend or just via a URL.

Note this is all on my local machine.

My settings are as follows:

MEDIA_ROOT = '/home/dan/mysite/media/'

MEDIA_URL = '/media/'

I have set the upload_to parameter to 'images' and the file has been correctly uploaded to the directory:

'/home/dan/mysite/media/images/myimage.png'

However, when I try to access the image at the following URL:

http://127.0.0.1:8000/media/images/myimage.png

I get a 404 error.

Do I need to setup specific URLconf patters for uploaded media?

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Here are the changes I had to make to deliver PDFs for the django-publications app, using Django 1.10.6:

Used the same definitions for media directories as you, in settings.py:

MEDIA_ROOT = '/home/user/mysite/media/'

MEDIA_URL = '/media/'

As provided by @thisisashwanipandey, in the project's main urls.py:

from django.conf import settings
from django.conf.urls.static import static

urlpatterns = [
    # ... the rest of your URLconf goes here ...
] + static(settings.MEDIA_URL, document_root=settings.MEDIA_ROOT)

and a modification of the answer provided by @r-allela, in settings.py:

TEMPLATES = [
    {
        'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
        'DIRS': [os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'templates')],
        'APP_DIRS': True,
        'OPTIONS': {
            'context_processors': [
                # ... the rest of your context_processors goes here ...
                'django.template.context_processors.media',
            ],
         },
    },
]

Answer 2

Please read the official Django DOC carefully and you will find the most fit answer.

The best and easist way to solve this is like below.

from django.conf import settings
from django.conf.urls.static import static

urlpatterns = patterns('',
    # ... the rest of your URLconf goes here ...
) + static(settings.MEDIA_URL, document_root=settings.MEDIA_ROOT)

Answer 3

UPDATE for Django >= 1.7

Per Django 2.1 documentation: Serving files uploaded by a user during development

from django.conf import settings
from django.conf.urls.static import static

urlpatterns = patterns('',
    # ... the rest of your URLconf goes here ...
) + static(settings.MEDIA_URL, document_root=settings.MEDIA_ROOT)

You no longer need if settings.DEBUG as Django will handle ensuring this is only used in Debug mode.

---

ORIGINAL answer for Django <= 1.6

Try putting this into your urls.py

from django.conf import settings

# ... your normal urlpatterns here

if settings.DEBUG:
    # static files (images, css, javascript, etc.)
    urlpatterns += patterns('',
        (r'^media/(?P<path>.*)$', 'django.views.static.serve', {
        'document_root': settings.MEDIA_ROOT}))

With this you can serve the static media from Django when DEBUG = True (when you run on local computer) but you can let your web server configuration serve static media when you go to production and DEBUG = False

Answer 4

Do I need to setup specific URLconf patters for uploaded media?

Yes. For development, it's as easy as adding this to your URLconf:

if settings.DEBUG:
    urlpatterns += patterns('django.views.static',
        (r'media/(?P<path>.*)', 'serve', {'document_root': settings.MEDIA_ROOT}),
    )

However, for production, you'll want to serve the media using Apache, lighttpd, nginx, or your preferred web server.

Answer 5

Another problem you are likely to face after setting up all your URLconf patterns is that the variable {{ MEDIA_URL }} won't work in your templates. To fix this,in your settings.py, make sure you add

django.core.context_processors.media

in your TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS.

Answer 6

Your setting is all right. Some web servers require to specify the media and static folder files specifically. For example in pythonanywhere.com you have to go to the 'Web' section and add the url od the media folders and static folder. For example:

  URL                     Directory                
/static/            /home/Saidmamad/discoverthepamirs/static     
/accounts/static/   /home/Saidmamad/discoverthepamirs/accounts/static    
/media/            /home/Saidmamad/discoverthepamirs/discoverthepamirs/media    

I know that it is late, but just to help those who visit this link because of the same problem ;)