(django) static file for the whole project

Question

When I use {% load static %} and then add an image like this to my template:

<img src="{% static 'logo.png' %}">

I only get the image if it's stored in a direction called static which is in the same app. But I want to use the logo for the whole project, and, also in a template for the whole project. It doesn't work when the image is stored in a static direction which is in the inner project folder.

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How do I use static files for the whole project? And how to acces them from the template? (I'm a hobby developper and so not in production ;-)) My settings are nearly the one they were when I created the project. (I only added some additional template direction.)

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Thank you for reading this

Answer 1

If you want to use static files in your Django project, you have to realize several steps :

Step 1 : INSTALLED_APPS in settings.py

Make sure that you have django.contrib.staticfiles in INSTALLED_APPS

Step 2 : STATIC_URL

Then, in settings.py file you have to write this : STATIC_URL = '/static/'

Now, in your Django application, you can create a new repository named static and put your static elements inside.

If you want to call on of this element :

{% load static %}
<img src="{% static "my_app/example.jpg" %}" alt="My image"/>

STEP 3 (What do you want) : STATICFILES_DIRS

If you have some static elements which are not for a particular Django application, you can use STATICFILES_DIRS.

You can create a new repository beside Django applications repository : static.

You will get :

My_project
|
 __ application 1
|
 __ application 2
|
 __ ...
|
 __ static

In settings.py file, please add :

STATICFILES_DIRS = [
    os.path.join(BASE_DIR, "static"),
    'path_to_static_directory/static/',
]

Now, you can access to static files in any templates just by loading static files : {% load static %}.

Please, read this tutorial : https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.10/howto/static-files/