Location of Django Admin media files on Google App

Question

I am running GoogleAppEngine (GAE) 1.6.3 with Python 2.7 and Django 1.3 by having:

libraries:
- name: django
  version: "1.3"

in my app.yaml. The following should serve the admin media files at url /static/admin:

- url: /static/admin
  static_dir: django/contrib/admin/media
  expiration: '0'

But I get 404s for such admin media (css, etc). Am I using the correct location for the Django admin's media file?

Answer 1

Following seems to work fine for me.

app.yaml

handlers:
- url: /static
  static_dir: staticfiles

settings

STATIC_URL = '/static/'
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'staticfiles')
STATICFILES_DIRS = (
    os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static'),
)

Run python manage.py collectstatic. Now under your staticfiles admin folder should be created.

Answer 2

is possible static file referenced by variable $PYTHON_LIB on deploy ??

file app.yaml

application: hello
version: 1
runtime: python27
api_version: 1
threadsafe: true

libraries:
- name: django
  version: "1.3"

handlers:
- url: /admin/media
  static_dir: $PYTHON_LIB/lib/django_1_3/django/contrib/admin/media

builtins:
- django_wsgi: on

log local:

INFO 2012-04-03 02:06:19,200 dev_appserver.py:2884] "GET /admin/media/css/base.css HTTP/1.1" 200 -

INFO 2012-04-03 02:06:19,207 dev_appserver.py:2884] "GET /admin/media/css/dashboard.css HTTP/1.1" 200 -

INFO 2012-04-03 02:06:19,242 dev_appserver.py:2884] "GET /admin/media/img/admin/default-bg.gif HTTP/1.1" 200 -

log error deploy app:

2012-04-02 19:17:32.775 /admin/media/css/dashboard.css 404 6ms 0kb

• • [02/Apr/2012:19:17:32 -0700] "GET /admin/media/css/dashboard.css HTTP/1.1" 404

Static file referenced by handler not found:$PYTHON_LIB/lib/django_1_3/django/contrib/admin/media/css/dashboard.css

Answer 3

The best way to do this is to copy or symlink the media directory into your app directory in your local files, so it is uploaded with your app's files. Then your app.yaml can refer to the relative path in the app directory.

There is a $PYTHON_LIB variable substitution you can use in app.yaml paths, but it looks like Django is not under $PYTHON_LIB in the live version of the Python 2.7 runtime.

Answer 4

I tried Philipp Keller's collectstatic, but I don't have that command available.

So, add this handler to app.yaml:

- url: /static/admin
  static_dir: django/contrib/admin/static/admin
  expiration: '0'

then, in settings.py, delete ADMIN_MEDIA_PREFIX (removed in django 1.4) and add:

STATIC_URL = '/static/'

and you have working css.

Answer 5

When adding this to app.yaml

handlers:
- url: /static/admin
  static_dir: static/admin
  expiration: '0'

I was able to serve the CSS files by:

Adding this to settings.py:

BASE_DIR = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__)) + os.sep
STATIC_ROOT = BASE_DIR + 'static'

And then running

python manage.py collectstatic

The admin media files appear correctly locally as well as on appspot.com. The last command copies the media files into the the static/ directory. So in fact does what Dan Sanderson suggested but in a more automated way.