| ===================================== |
| Writing your first Django app, part 6 |
| ===================================== |
|
|
| This tutorial begins where :doc:`Tutorial 5 </intro/tutorial05>` left off. |
| We've built a tested web-poll application, and we'll now add a stylesheet and |
| an image. |
|
|
| Aside from the HTML generated by the server, web applications generally need |
| to serve additional files — such as images, JavaScript, or CSS — necessary to |
| render the complete web page. In Django, we refer to these files as "static |
| files". |
|
|
| For small projects, this isn't a big deal, because you can keep the static |
| files somewhere your web server can find it. However, in bigger projects -- |
| especially those comprised of multiple apps -- dealing with the multiple sets |
| of static files provided by each application starts to get tricky. |
|
|
| That's what ``django.contrib.staticfiles`` is for: it 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. |
|
|
| .. admonition:: Where to get help: |
|
|
| If you're having trouble going through this tutorial, please head over to |
| the :doc:`Getting Help</faq/help>` section of the FAQ. |
|
|
| Customize your *app's* look and feel |
| ==================================== |
|
|
| First, create a directory called ``static`` in your ``polls`` directory. Django |
| will look for static files there, similarly to how Django finds templates |
| inside ``polls/templates/``. |
|
|
| Django's :setting:`STATICFILES_FINDERS` setting contains a list |
| of finders that know how to discover static files from various |
| sources. One of the defaults is ``AppDirectoriesFinder`` which |
| looks for a "static" subdirectory in each of the |
| :setting:`INSTALLED_APPS`, like the one in ``polls`` we just created. The admin |
| site uses the same directory structure for its static files. |
|
|
| Within the ``static`` directory you have just created, create another directory |
| called ``polls`` and within that create a file called ``style.css``. In other |
| words, your stylesheet should be at ``polls/static/polls/style.css``. Because |
| of how the ``AppDirectoriesFinder`` staticfile finder works, you can refer to |
| this static file in Django as ``polls/style.css``, similar to how you reference |
| the path for templates. |
|
|
| .. admonition:: Static file namespacing |
|
|
| Just like templates, we *might* be able to get away with putting our static |
| files directly in ``polls/static`` (rather than creating another ``polls`` |
| subdirectory), but it would actually be a bad idea. Django will choose the |
| first static file it finds whose name matches, and if you had a static file |
| with the same name in a *different* application, Django would be unable to |
| distinguish between them. We need to be able to point Django at the right |
| one, and the best way to ensure this is by *namespacing* them. That is, by |
| putting those static files inside *another* directory named for the |
| application itself. |
|
|
| Put the following code in that stylesheet (``polls/static/polls/style.css``): |
|
|
| .. code-block:: css |
| :caption: ``polls/static/polls/style.css`` |
|
|
| li a { |
| color: green; |
| } |
|
|
| Next, add the following at the top of ``polls/templates/polls/index.html``: |
|
|
| .. code-block:: html+django |
| :caption: ``polls/templates/polls/index.html`` |
|
|
| {% load static %} |
|
|
| <link rel="stylesheet" href="{% static 'polls/style.css' %}"> |
|
|
| The ``{% static %}`` template tag generates the absolute URL of static files. |
|
|
| That's all you need to do for development. |
|
|
| Start the server (or restart it if it's already running): |
|
|
| .. console:: |
|
|
| $ python manage.py runserver |
|
|
| Reload ``http://localhost:8000/polls/`` and you should see that the question |
| links are green (Django style!) which means that your stylesheet was properly |
| loaded. |
|
|
| Adding a background-image |
| ========================= |
|
|
| Next, we'll create a subdirectory for images. Create an ``images`` subdirectory |
| in the ``polls/static/polls/`` directory. Inside this directory, add any image |
| file that you'd like to use as a background. For the purposes of this tutorial, |
| we're using a file named ``background.png``, which will have the full path |
| ``polls/static/polls/images/background.png``. |
|
|
| Then, add a reference to your image in your stylesheet |
| (``polls/static/polls/style.css``): |
|
|
| .. code-block:: css |
| :caption: ``polls/static/polls/style.css`` |
|
|
| body { |
| background: white url("images/background.png") no-repeat; |
| } |
|
|
| Reload ``http://localhost:8000/polls/`` and you should see the background |
| loaded in the top left of the screen. |
|
|
| .. warning:: |
|
|
| The ``{% static %}`` template tag is not available for use in static files |
| which aren't generated by Django, like your stylesheet. You should always |
| use **relative paths** to link your static files between each other, |
| because then you can change :setting:`STATIC_URL` (used by the |
| :ttag:`static` template tag to generate its URLs) without having to modify |
| a bunch of paths in your static files as well. |
|
|
| These are the **basics**. For more details on settings and other bits included |
| with the framework see |
| :doc:`the static files howto </howto/static-files/index>` and |
| :doc:`the staticfiles reference </ref/contrib/staticfiles>`. :doc:`Deploying |
| static files </howto/static-files/deployment>` discusses how to use static |
| files on a real server. |
|
|
| When you're comfortable with the static files, read :doc:`part 7 of this |
| tutorial </intro/tutorial07>` to learn how to customize Django's |
| automatically-generated admin site. |
|
|
