126 lines
5.2 KiB
Plaintext
126 lines
5.2 KiB
Plaintext
=====================================
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Writing your first Django app, part 6
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=====================================
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This tutorial begins where :doc:`Tutorial 5 </intro/tutorial05>` left off.
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We've built a tested Web-poll application, and we'll now add a stylesheet and
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an image.
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Aside from the HTML generated by the server, web applications generally need
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to serve additional files — such as images, JavaScript, or CSS — necessary to
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render the complete web page. In Django, we refer to these files as "static
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files".
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For small projects, this isn't a big deal, because you can just keep the
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static files somewhere your web server can find it. However, in bigger
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projects -- especially those comprised of multiple apps -- dealing with the
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multiple sets of static files provided by each application starts to get
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tricky.
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That's what ``django.contrib.staticfiles`` is for: it collects static files
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from each of your applications (and any other places you specify) into a
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single location that can easily be served in production.
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Customize your *app's* look and feel
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====================================
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First, create a directory called ``static`` in your ``polls`` directory. Django
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will look for static files there, similarly to how Django finds templates
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inside ``polls/templates/``.
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Django's :setting:`STATICFILES_FINDERS` setting contains a list
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of finders that know how to discover static files from various
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sources. One of the defaults is ``AppDirectoriesFinder`` which
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looks for a "static" subdirectory in each of the
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:setting:`INSTALLED_APPS`, like the one in ``polls`` we just created. The admin
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site uses the same directory structure for its static files.
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Within the ``static`` directory you have just created, create another directory
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called ``polls`` and within that create a file called ``style.css``. In other
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words, your stylesheet should be at ``polls/static/polls/style.css``. Because
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of how the ``AppDirectoriesFinder`` staticfile finder works, you can refer to
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this static file in Django simply as ``polls/style.css``, similar to how you
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reference the path for templates.
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.. admonition:: Static file namespacing
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Just like templates, we *might* be able to get away with putting our static
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files directly in ``polls/static`` (rather than creating another ``polls``
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subdirectory), but it would actually be a bad idea. Django will choose the
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first static file it finds whose name matches, and if you had a static file
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with the same name in a *different* application, Django would be unable to
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distinguish between them. We need to be able to point Django at the right
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one, and the easiest way to ensure this is by *namespacing* them. That is,
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by putting those static files inside *another* directory named for the
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application itself.
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Put the following code in that stylesheet (``polls/static/polls/style.css``):
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.. code-block:: css
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li a {
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color: green;
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}
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Next, add the following at the top of ``polls/templates/polls/index.html``:
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.. code-block:: html+django
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{% load staticfiles %}
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<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="{% static 'polls/style.css' %}" />
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``{% load staticfiles %}`` loads the :ttag:`{% static %} <staticfiles-static>`
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template tag from the ``staticfiles`` template library. The ``{% static %}``
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template tag generates the absolute URL of the static file.
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That's all you need to do for development. Reload
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``http://localhost:8000/polls/`` and you should see that the poll links are
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green (Django style!) which means that your stylesheet was properly loaded.
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Adding a background-image
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=========================
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Next, we'll create a subdirectory for images. Create an ``images`` subdirectory
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in the ``polls/static/polls/`` directory. Inside this directory, put an image
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called ``background.gif``. In other words, put your image in
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``polls/static/polls/images/background.gif``.
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Then, add to your stylesheet (``polls/static/polls/style.css``):
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.. code-block:: css
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body {
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background: white url("images/background.gif") no-repeat right bottom;
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}
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Reload ``http://localhost:8000/polls/`` and you should see the background
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loaded in the bottom right of the screen.
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.. warning::
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Of course the ``{% static %}`` template tag is not available for use in
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static files like your stylesheet which aren't generated by Django. You
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should always use **relative paths** to link your static files between each
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other, because then you can change :setting:`STATIC_URL` (used by the
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:ttag:`static` template tag to generate its URLs) without having to modify
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a bunch of paths in your static files as well.
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These are the **basics**. For more details on settings and other bits included
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with the framework see
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:doc:`the static files howto </howto/static-files/index>` and
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:doc:`the staticfiles reference </ref/contrib/staticfiles>`. :doc:`Deploying
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static files </howto/static-files/deployment>` discusses how to use static
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files on a real server.
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What's next?
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============
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The beginner tutorial ends here for the time being. In the meantime, you might
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want to check out some pointers on :doc:`where to go from here
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</intro/whatsnext>`.
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If you are familiar with Python packaging and interested in learning how to
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turn polls into a "reusable app", check out :doc:`Advanced tutorial: How to
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write reusable apps</intro/reusable-apps>`.
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