How do I serve static files and dynamic files in Django 1.3 development urls?

Question

I'm a little stumped. In development, I'm trying to serve both static AND dynamic files for my app in DJango 1.3. I love the new static features, but I can't seem to get this to work properly.

When I read the docs, it looks like the following should work. It serves dynamic stuff fine, but not static.

urlpatterns += staticfiles_urlpatterns()

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

Answer 1

In django 1.3 static and dynamic content have been separated. to use the new features, set up your project like this:

project
 |- app1
 |- media       # exists only on server/folder for dynamic content
 |- static-root # exists only on server/folder for static content
 |- static      # folder for site-specific static content
 |- settings.py
 |- manage.py
 `- urls.py

settings.py

from os import path
PROJECT_ROOT = path.dirname(path.abspath(__file__)) #gets directory settings is in

#-- dynamic content is saved to here --
MEDIA_ROOT = path.join(PROJECT_ROOT,'media')
MEDIA_URL  = '/media/'

#-- static content is saved to here --
STATIC_ROOT = path.join(PROJECT_ROOT,'static-root') # this folder is used to collect static files in production. not used in development
STATIC_URL =  "/static/"
ADMIN_MEDIA_URL = STATIC_URL + 'admin/' #admin is now served by staticfiles
STATICFILES_DIRS = (
    ('site', path.join(PROJECT_ROOT,'static')), #store site-specific media here.
)

#-- other settings --
INSTALLED_APPS = (
    ...
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
    ...
)

urls.py

from django.conf import settings

#your URL patterns

if settings.DEBUG:
    urlpatterns += staticfiles_urlpatterns() #this servers static files and media files.
    #in case media is not served correctly
    urlpatterns += patterns('',
        url(r'^media/(?P<path>.*)$', 'django.views.static.serve', {
            'document_root': settings.MEDIA_ROOT,
        }),
    )