Fixed #19582 - Added a static files tutorial.

Thanks James Pic.

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+=====================
+Managing static files
+=====================
+
+Django developers mostly concern themselves with the dynamic parts of web
+applications -- the views and templates that render anew for each request. But
+web applications have other parts: the static files (images, CSS,
+Javascript, etc.) that are needed to render a complete web page.
+
+For small projects, this isn't a big deal, because you can just keep the
+static files somewhere your web server can find it. However, in bigger
+projects -- especially those comprised of multiple apps -- dealing with the
+multiple sets of static files provided by each application starts to get
+tricky.
+
+That's what ``django.contrib.staticfiles`` is for: it collects static files
+from each of your applications (and any other places you specify) into a
+single location that can easily be served in production.
+
+.. note::
+
+    If you've used the `django-staticfiles`_ third-party app before, then
+    ``django.contrib.staticfiles`` will look very familiar. That's because
+    they're essentially the same code: ``django.contrib.staticfiles`` started
+    its life as `django-staticfiles`_ and was merged into Django 1.3.
+
+    If you're upgrading from ``django-staticfiles``, please see `Upgrading from
+    django-staticfiles`_, below, for a few minor changes you'll need to make.
+
+.. _django-staticfiles: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/django-staticfiles/
+
+Using ``django.contrib.staticfiles``
+====================================
+
+Basic usage
+-----------
+
+1. Put your static files somewhere that ``staticfiles`` will find them.
+
+   By default, this means within ``static/`` subdirectories of apps in your
+   :setting:`INSTALLED_APPS`.
+
+   Your project will probably also have static assets that aren't tied to a
+   particular app. The :setting:`STATICFILES_DIRS` setting is a tuple of
+   filesystem directories to check when loading static files. It's a search
+   path that is by default empty. See the :setting:`STATICFILES_DIRS` docs
+   how to extend this list of additional paths.
+
+   Additionally, see the documentation for the :setting:`STATICFILES_FINDERS`
+   setting for details on how ``staticfiles`` finds your files.
+
+2. Make sure that ``django.contrib.staticfiles`` is included in your
+   :setting:`INSTALLED_APPS`.
+
+   For :ref:`local development<staticfiles-development>`, if you are using
+   :ref:`runserver<staticfiles-runserver>` or adding
+   :ref:`staticfiles_urlpatterns<staticfiles-development>` to your
+   URLconf, you're done with the setup -- your static files will
+   automatically be served at the default (for
+   :djadmin:`newly created<startproject>` projects) :setting:`STATIC_URL`
+   of ``/static/``.
+
+3. You'll probably need to refer to these files in your templates. The
+   easiest method is to use the included context processor which allows
+   template code like:
+
+   .. code-block:: html+django
+
+       <img src="{{ STATIC_URL }}images/hi.jpg" alt="Hi!" />
+
+   See :ref:`staticfiles-in-templates` for more details, **including** an
+   alternate method using a template tag.
+
+Deploying static files in a nutshell
+------------------------------------
+
+When you're ready to move out of local development and deploy your project:
+
+1. Set the :setting:`STATIC_URL` setting to the public URL for your static
+   files (in most cases, the default value of ``/static/`` is just fine).
+
+2. Set the :setting:`STATIC_ROOT` setting to point to the filesystem path
+   you'd like your static files collected to when you use the
+   :djadmin:`collectstatic` management command. For example::
+
+       STATIC_ROOT = "/home/jacob/projects/mysite.com/sitestatic"
+
+3. Run the :djadmin:`collectstatic` management command::
+
+       ./manage.py collectstatic
+
+   This'll churn through your static file storage and copy them into the
+   directory given by :setting:`STATIC_ROOT`.
+
+4. Deploy those files by configuring your webserver of choice to serve the
+   files in :setting:`STATIC_ROOT` at :setting:`STATIC_URL`.
+
+   :ref:`staticfiles-production` covers some common deployment strategies
+   for static files.
+
+Those are the **basics**. For more details on common configuration options,
+read on; for a detailed reference of the settings, commands, and other bits
+included with the framework see
+:doc:`the staticfiles reference </ref/contrib/staticfiles>`.
+
+.. note::
+
+   In previous versions of Django, it was common to place static assets in
+   :setting:`MEDIA_ROOT` along with user-uploaded files, and serve them both
+   at :setting:`MEDIA_URL`. Part of the purpose of introducing the
+   ``staticfiles`` app is to make it easier to keep static files separate
+   from user-uploaded files.
+
+   For this reason, you need to make your :setting:`MEDIA_ROOT` and
+   :setting:`MEDIA_URL` different from your :setting:`STATIC_ROOT` and
+   :setting:`STATIC_URL`. You will need to arrange for serving of files in
+   :setting:`MEDIA_ROOT` yourself; ``staticfiles`` does not deal with
+   user-uploaded files at all. You can, however, use
+   :func:`django.views.static.serve` view for serving :setting:`MEDIA_ROOT`
+   in development; see :ref:`staticfiles-other-directories`.
+
+.. _staticfiles-in-templates:
+
+Referring to static files in templates
+======================================
+
+At some point, you'll probably need to link to static files in your templates.
+You could, of course, simply hardcode the path to you assets in the templates:
+
+.. code-block:: html
+
+    <img src="http://static.example.com/static/myimage.jpg" alt="Sample image" />
+
+Of course, there are some serious problems with this: it doesn't work well in
+development, and it makes it *very* hard to change where you've deployed your
+static files. If, for example, you wanted to switch to using a content
+delivery network (CDN), then you'd need to change more or less every single
+template.
+
+A far better way is to use the value of the :setting:`STATIC_URL` setting
+directly in your templates. This means that a switch of static files servers
+only requires changing that single value. Much better!
+
+Django includes multiple built-in ways of using this setting in your
+templates: a context processor and a template tag.
+
+With a context processor
+------------------------
+
+The included context processor is the easy way. Simply make sure
+``'django.core.context_processors.static'`` is in your
+:setting:`TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS`. It's there by default, and if you're
+editing that setting by hand it should look something like::
+
+    TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS = (
+        'django.core.context_processors.debug',
+        'django.core.context_processors.i18n',
+        'django.core.context_processors.media',
+        'django.core.context_processors.static',
+        'django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth',
+        'django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages',
+    )
+
+Once that's done, you can refer to :setting:`STATIC_URL` in your templates:
+
+.. code-block:: html+django
+
+     <img src="{{ STATIC_URL }}images/hi.jpg" alt="Hi!" />
+
+If ``{{ STATIC_URL }}`` isn't working in your template, you're probably not
+using :class:`~django.template.RequestContext` when rendering the template.
+
+As a brief refresher, context processors add variables into the contexts of
+every template. However, context processors require that you use
+:class:`~django.template.RequestContext` when rendering templates. This happens
+automatically if you're using a :doc:`generic view </ref/class-based-views/index>`,
+but in views written by hand you'll need to explicitly use ``RequestContext``
+To see how that works, and to read more details, check out
+:ref:`subclassing-context-requestcontext`.
+
+Another option is the :ttag:`get_static_prefix` template tag that is part of
+Django's core.
+
+With a template tag
+-------------------
+
+The more powerful tool is the :ttag:`static<staticfiles-static>` template
+tag. It builds the URL for the given relative path by using the configured
+:setting:`STATICFILES_STORAGE` storage.
+
+.. code-block:: html+django
+
+    {% load staticfiles %}
+    <img src="{% static "images/hi.jpg" %}" alt="Hi!"/>
+
+It is also able to consume standard context variables, e.g. assuming a
+``user_stylesheet`` variable is passed to the template:
+
+.. code-block:: html+django
+
+    {% load staticfiles %}
+    <link rel="stylesheet" href="{% static user_stylesheet %}" type="text/css" media="screen" />
+
+.. note::
+
+    There is also a template tag named :ttag:`static` in Django's core set
+    of :ref:`built in template tags<ref-templates-builtins-tags>` which has
+    the same argument signature but only uses `urlparse.urljoin()`_ with the
+    :setting:`STATIC_URL` setting and the given path. This has the
+    disadvantage of not being able to easily switch the storage backend
+    without changing the templates, so in doubt use the ``staticfiles``
+    :ttag:`static<staticfiles-static>`
+    template tag.
+
+.. _`urlparse.urljoin()`: http://docs.python.org/library/urlparse.html#urlparse.urljoin
+
+.. _staticfiles-development:
+
+Serving static files in development
+===================================
+
+The static files tools are mostly designed to help with getting static files
+successfully deployed into production. This usually means a separate,
+dedicated static file server, which is a lot of overhead to mess with when
+developing locally. Thus, the ``staticfiles`` app ships with a
+**quick and dirty helper view** that you can use to serve files locally in
+development.
+
+This view is automatically enabled and will serve your static files at
+:setting:`STATIC_URL` when you use the built-in
+:ref:`runserver<staticfiles-runserver>` management command.
+
+To enable this view if you are using some other server for local development,
+you'll add a couple of lines to your URLconf. The first line goes at the top
+of the file, and the last line at the bottom::
+
+    from django.contrib.staticfiles.urls import staticfiles_urlpatterns
+
+    # ... the rest of your URLconf goes here ...
+
+    urlpatterns += staticfiles_urlpatterns()
+
+This will inspect your :setting:`STATIC_URL` setting and wire up the view
+to serve static files accordingly. Don't forget to set the
+:setting:`STATICFILES_DIRS` setting appropriately to let
+``django.contrib.staticfiles`` know where to look for files additionally to
+files in app directories.
+
+.. warning::
+
+    This will only work if :setting:`DEBUG` is ``True``.
+
+    That's because this view is **grossly inefficient** and probably
+    **insecure**. This is only intended for local development, and should
+    **never be used in production**.
+
+    Additionally, when using ``staticfiles_urlpatterns`` your
+    :setting:`STATIC_URL` setting can't be empty or a full URL, such as
+    ``http://static.example.com/``.
+
+For a few more details on how the ``staticfiles`` can be used during
+development, see :ref:`staticfiles-development-view`.
+
+.. _staticfiles-other-directories:
+
+Serving other directories
+-------------------------
+
+.. currentmodule:: django.views.static
+.. function:: serve(request, path, document_root, show_indexes=False)
+
+There may be files other than your project's static assets that, for
+convenience, you'd like to have Django serve for you in local development.
+The :func:`~django.views.static.serve` view can be used to serve any directory
+you give it. (Again, this view is **not** hardened for production
+use, and should be used only as a development aid; you should serve these files
+in production using a real front-end webserver).
+
+The most likely example is user-uploaded content in :setting:`MEDIA_ROOT`.
+``staticfiles`` is intended for static assets and has no built-in handling
+for user-uploaded files, but you can have Django serve your
+:setting:`MEDIA_ROOT` by appending something like this to your URLconf::
+
+    from django.conf import settings
+
+    # ... the rest of your URLconf goes here ...
+
+    if settings.DEBUG:
+        urlpatterns += patterns('',
+            url(r'^media/(?P<path>.*)$', 'django.views.static.serve', {
+                'document_root': settings.MEDIA_ROOT,
+            }),
+       )
+
+Note, the snippet assumes your :setting:`MEDIA_URL` has a value of
+``'/media/'``. This will call the :func:`~django.views.static.serve` view,
+passing in the path from the URLconf and the (required) ``document_root``
+parameter.
+
+.. currentmodule:: django.conf.urls.static
+.. function:: static(prefix, view='django.views.static.serve', **kwargs)
+
+Since it can become a bit cumbersome to define this URL pattern, Django
+ships with a small URL helper function
+:func:`~django.conf.urls.static.static` that takes as parameters the prefix
+such as :setting:`MEDIA_URL` and a dotted path to a view, such as
+``'django.views.static.serve'``. Any other function parameter will be
+transparently passed to the view.
+
+An example for serving :setting:`MEDIA_URL` (``'/media/'``) during
+development::
+
+    from django.conf import settings
+    from django.conf.urls.static import static
+
+    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+        # ... the rest of your URLconf goes here ...
+    ) + static(settings.MEDIA_URL, document_root=settings.MEDIA_ROOT)
+
+.. note::
+
+    This helper function will only be operational in debug mode and if
+    the given prefix is local (e.g. ``/static/``) and not a URL (e.g.
+    ``http://static.example.com/``).
+
+.. _staticfiles-production:
+
+Serving static files in production
+==================================
+
+The basic outline of putting static files into production is simple: run the
+:djadmin:`collectstatic` command when static files change, then arrange for
+the collected static files directory (:setting:`STATIC_ROOT`) to be moved to
+the static file server and served.
+
+Of course, as with all deployment tasks, the devil's in the details. Every
+production setup will be a bit different, so you'll need to adapt the basic
+outline to fit your needs. Below are a few common patterns that might help.
+
+Serving the app and your static files from the same server
+----------------------------------------------------------
+
+If you want to serve your static files from the same server that's already
+serving your site, the basic outline gets modified to look something like:
+
+* Push your code up to the deployment server.
+* On the server, run :djadmin:`collectstatic` to copy all the static files
+  into :setting:`STATIC_ROOT`.
+* Point your web server at :setting:`STATIC_ROOT`. For example, here's
+  :ref:`how to do this under Apache and mod_wsgi <serving-files>`.
+
+You'll probably want to automate this process, especially if you've got
+multiple web servers. There's any number of ways to do this automation, but
+one option that many Django developers enjoy is `Fabric`__.
+
+__ http://fabfile.org/
+
+Below, and in the following sections, we'll show off a few example fabfiles
+(i.e. Fabric scripts) that automate these file deployment options. The syntax
+of a fabfile is fairly straightforward but won't be covered here; consult
+`Fabric's documentation`__, for a complete explanation of the syntax..
+
+__ http://docs.fabfile.org/
+
+So, a fabfile to deploy static files to a couple of web servers might look
+something like::
+
+    from fabric.api import *
+
+    # Hosts to deploy onto
+    env.hosts = ['www1.example.com', 'www2.example.com']
+
+    # Where your project code lives on the server
+    env.project_root = '/home/www/myproject'
+
+    def deploy_static():
+        with cd(env.project_root):
+            run('./manage.py collectstatic -v0 --noinput')
+
+Serving static files from a dedicated server
+--------------------------------------------
+
+Most larger Django apps use a separate Web server -- i.e., one that's not also
+running Django -- for serving static files. This server often runs a different
+type of web server -- faster but less full-featured. Some good choices are:
+
+* lighttpd_
+* Nginx_
+* TUX_
+* Cherokee_
+* A stripped-down version of Apache_
+
+.. _lighttpd: http://www.lighttpd.net/
+.. _Nginx: http://wiki.nginx.org/Main
+.. _TUX: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TUX_web_server
+.. _Apache: http://httpd.apache.org/
+.. _Cherokee: http://www.cherokee-project.com/
+
+Configuring these servers is out of scope of this document; check each
+server's respective documentation for instructions.
+
+Since your static file server won't be running Django, you'll need to modify
+the deployment strategy to look something like:
+
+* When your static files change, run :djadmin:`collectstatic` locally.
+* Push your local :setting:`STATIC_ROOT` up to the static file server
+  into the directory that's being served. ``rsync`` is a good
+  choice for this step since it only needs to transfer the
+  bits of static files that have changed.
+
+Here's how this might look in a fabfile::
+
+    from fabric.api import *
+    from fabric.contrib import project
+
+    # Where the static files get collected locally
+    env.local_static_root = '/tmp/static'
+
+    # Where the static files should go remotely
+    env.remote_static_root = '/home/www/static.example.com'
+
+    @roles('static')
+    def deploy_static():
+        local('./manage.py collectstatic')
+        project.rsync_project(
+            remote_dir = env.remote_static_root,
+            local_dir = env.local_static_root,
+            delete = True
+        )
+
+.. _staticfiles-from-cdn:
+
+Serving static files from a cloud service or CDN
+------------------------------------------------
+
+Another common tactic is to serve static files from a cloud storage provider
+like Amazon's S3__ and/or a CDN (content delivery network). This lets you
+ignore the problems of serving static files, and can often make for
+faster-loading webpages (especially when using a CDN).
+
+When using these services, the basic workflow would look a bit like the above,
+except that instead of using ``rsync`` to transfer your static files to the
+server you'd need to transfer the static files to the storage provider or CDN.
+
+There's any number of ways you might do this, but if the provider has an API a
+:doc:`custom file storage backend </howto/custom-file-storage>` will make the
+process incredibly simple. If you've written or are using a 3rd party custom
+storage backend, you can tell :djadmin:`collectstatic` to use it by setting
+:setting:`STATICFILES_STORAGE` to the storage engine.
+
+For example, if you've written an S3 storage backend in
+``myproject.storage.S3Storage`` you could use it with::
+
+    STATICFILES_STORAGE = 'myproject.storage.S3Storage'
+
+Once that's done, all you have to do is run :djadmin:`collectstatic` and your
+static files would be pushed through your storage package up to S3. If you
+later needed to switch to a different storage provider, it could be as simple
+as changing your :setting:`STATICFILES_STORAGE` setting.
+
+For details on how you'd write one of these backends,
+:doc:`/howto/custom-file-storage`.
+
+.. seealso::
+
+    The `django-storages`__ project is a 3rd party app that provides many
+    storage backends for many common file storage APIs (including `S3`__).
+
+__ http://s3.amazonaws.com/
+__ http://code.larlet.fr/django-storages/
+__ http://django-storages.readthedocs.org/en/latest/backends/amazon-S3.html
+
+Upgrading from ``django-staticfiles``
+=====================================
+
+``django.contrib.staticfiles`` began its life as `django-staticfiles`_. If
+you're upgrading from `django-staticfiles`_ older than 1.0 (e.g. 0.3.4) to
+``django.contrib.staticfiles``, you'll need to make a few changes:
+
+* Application files should now live in a ``static`` directory in each app
+  (`django-staticfiles`_ used the name ``media``, which was slightly
+  confusing).
+
+* The management commands ``build_static`` and ``resolve_static`` are now
+  called :djadmin:`collectstatic` and :djadmin:`findstatic`.
+
+* The settings ``STATICFILES_PREPEND_LABEL_APPS``,
+  ``STATICFILES_MEDIA_DIRNAMES`` and ``STATICFILES_EXCLUDED_APPS`` were
+  removed.
+
+* The setting ``STATICFILES_RESOLVERS`` was removed, and replaced by the
+  new :setting:`STATICFILES_FINDERS`.
+
+* The default for :setting:`STATICFILES_STORAGE` was renamed from
+  ``staticfiles.storage.StaticFileStorage`` to
+  ``staticfiles.storage.StaticFilesStorage``
+
+* If using :ref:`runserver<staticfiles-runserver>` for local development
+  (and the :setting:`DEBUG` setting is ``True``), you no longer need to add
+  anything to your URLconf for serving static files in development.
+
+Learn more
+==========
+
+This document has covered the basics and some common usage patterns. For
+complete details on all the settings, commands, template tags, and other pieces
+include in ``django.contrib.staticfiles``, see :doc:`the staticfiles reference
+</ref/contrib/staticfiles>`.