Django custom 404 page not working

Question

So, in my projects I wanted to add a custom 404 error page, so I followed what I could find on the web, but nothing seemed to work for me.

This is what I have on my files:

settings.py

import os
# Django settings for HogwartsMail project.

PROJECT_PATH = os.path.realpath(os.path.dirname(__file__))

DEBUG = False
TEMPLATE_DEBUG = DEBUG

# Hosts/domain names that are valid for this site; required if DEBUG is False
# See https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.5/ref/settings/#allowed-hosts
ALLOWED_HOSTS = ["*"]

urls.py

urlpatterns = patterns('',
    ...
)

handler404 = "HogwartsMail.views.error404"

views.py

def error404(request):
    return render(request,'404.html')

Whenever I try to enter a random url, though, instead of getting a 404 error, I get a Server Error (500).

As I've said, i tried it many different ways, but none actually worked for me.

Also, another problem I am having is that the pages I have load really slowly and they don't open the styling or images, so I assume that, when DEBUG = False, I need everything to be already online. Is that correct?

Answer 1

When DEBUG = False, you can use python manage.py runserver --insecure to serve the static files during local development.

See more information in this answer.