WhiteNoise
Django does not have a built-in solution for serving static files, at least not in production when DEBUG has to be False.
We have to use a third-party solution to accomplish this.
In this Tutorial we will use WhiteNoise, which is a Python library, built for serving static files.
Install WhiteNoise
To install WhiteNoise in your virtual environment, type the command below:
pip install whitenoise
The result should be something like this:
Collecting whitenoise
Downloading whitenoise-6.9.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (3.6 kB)
Downloading whitenoise-6.9.0-py3-none-any.whl (20 kB)
Installing collected packages: whitenoise
Successfully installed whitenoise-6.9.0
[notice] A new release of pip is available: 24.3.1 -> 25.0.1
[notice] To update, run: python.exe -m pip install --upgrade pip
Modify Settings
To make Django aware of you wanting to run WhitNoise, you have to specify it in the MIDDLEWARE list in settings.py file:
.
.
MIDDLEWARE = [
'django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware',
'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware',
'whitenoise.middleware.WhiteNoiseMiddleware',
].
.
Collect Static Files
There are one more action you have to perform before you can serve the static file from the example in the previous chapter. You have to collect all static files and put them into one specified folder. You will learn how in the next chapter.
