Django: How to use static files (simple case, jquery)

Question

I am trying to use jQuery on a Django site. I need to include the jQuery.js library. I have read a lot about Django static files, but I don't think anyone has asked this particular question. I have only three static files to serve: jquery.js, anothersmallfile.js, and styles.css. The Django docs on static file serving say:

"For small projects, this isn’t a big deal, because you can just keep the static files somewhere your web server can find it. link

I would like to "just keep them somewhere my webserver can find them" because elsewhere the Django docs clearly state (warn) that their static-files serving method is only for a development environment. I only have a few static files and I just want the simplest secure solution.

Unfortunately I can't get it working. No matter where I put the files, Django can't find them. Debugging through Chrome web developer console I see I'm getting a 404 error:

GET http://127.0.0.1:8000/templates/polls/jquery.js 404 (NOT FOUND)

I am new to running a server. Do I A.) need to tell my urls.py file where to find static files? or perhaps the problem is B.) that I have misunderstood this issue - Django is my webserver (for production) so right now I must use the Django static files solution?

Doesn't seem like it ought to be very difficult to get my templates to simply recognize a .js file that's in the same directory as they are. Am I missing something?

Edit, before I get more downvotes: I am talking about this passage from the page linked above:

///////////////////////

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.

/////////////////// Emphasis added

So if that's what django.contrib.staticfiles is for, what's the simpler solution? I dispute that this is a repeat of prior questions.

Answer 1

You need to read that documentation more closely. That warning is for production. In development, you do use that static-serving method, ie putting it in your urls.py. And, that documentation will also show that the templates directory is not the right place to put them: a separate static or media directory is.

Edit after comment I really don't understand your comment. Either you do it in development via the static serving view, or you use your production server. But you say you don't have a production server. When you get one, whether it's Apache or Nginx or whatever, you put your static files in a directory and tell that server to serve files from there. That is the simple solution. The staticfiles app, exactly as in the docs you quoted, are for when you've got lots of files in different apps (and it simplifies the move from development to production, not complicates it as you seem to think).

Answer 2

Suppose your app is www.

1. setting.py -> STATIC_ROOT = 'static/'
2. make dir www/static
3. make file www/static/some.html
4. in browser localhost:8000/static/some.html

That's all.