How to include external css, image, etc in django template?

Question

In django, all urls are parsed from urls.py file. So, there is no directory structure as such.

So, what if you have to include a css file in your template ?

Is there a way without adding it to url.py file ?

If no, then will you make new entry in urls.py for every resource ?

Answer 1

See the Django HOWTO on static files.

Basically, in your configuration file, you specify a special directory to store static files in. The example in the docs is:

STATIC_ROOT = "/home/jacob/projects/mysite.com/sitestatic"

You put CSS files, images, etc. in there, and the server will know to serve URLs that match your static URL pattern from that directory.

Answer 2

You no longer need to specify STATIC_ROOT (for djangor > 1.10). Simply, make sure

django.contrib.staticfiles

is included in INSTALLED_APPS

and

STATIC_URL = '/static/'

in your settings.py

Create a directory called "static" in your app directory, and inside the created static directory, another subdirectory named your app and include the static files there (you could also create js, img, css subdirectories inside the last directory based on your preference if you need)

Then, include the correct path in the template file. For ex:

src = "/static/my_app/example.js"

or

src = "/static/my_app/js/example.js"

(assuming your javascript files are in a directory called js)

Alternatively (much better), define the path using the static template tag:

{% load static %}
<script src="{% static "my_app/js/example.js" %}"></script>

All you need to know:

https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.10/howto/static-files/