Static Files, Media and Caching

collectstatic, user uploads, WhiteNoise and the cache framework.

• Intermediate
• 15 min read
• 3 objectives

Before this lessonLesson 10: Testing Django Apps

Static files (CSS, JS, images you ship) and media files (user uploads) are configured differently, and the cache framework sits next to both.

Static files

# settings
STATIC_URL = "static/"
STATIC_ROOT = BASE_DIR / "staticfiles"     # collectstatic target
STATICFILES_DIRS = [BASE_DIR / "static"]   # your source

{% load static %}
<link rel="stylesheet" href="{% static 'app.css' %}">

python manage.py collectstatic

In production, WhiteNoise serves compressed, hashed files from Django without Nginx for small apps: pip install whitenoise and add the middleware.

Uploads

class Profile(models.Model):
    avatar = models.ImageField(upload_to="avatars/")

# settings
MEDIA_URL = "/media/"
MEDIA_ROOT = BASE_DIR / "media"

Never serve MEDIA_ROOT with WhiteNoise in production; put uploads on S3 (django-storages) so the app servers stay stateless.

Caching

from django.core.cache import cache
from django.views.decorators.cache import cache_page

@cache_page(60 * 5)
def popular(request):
    ...

posts = cache.get_or_set("home-posts", lambda: list(Post.objects.all()[:10]), 60)