id	summary	reporter	owner	description	type	status	component	version	severity	resolution	keywords	cc	stage	has_patch	needs_docs	needs_tests	needs_better_patch	easy	ui_ux
20973	Improve docs about handling static files without django.contrib.staticfiles.	loic84	nobody	"Following discussion on IRC with @apollo13 and @ubernostrum.

Since `django.contrib.staticfiles` is optional,  we should document how to serve `STATIC_URL` without it during development; the docs for serving `MEDIA_URL` [ 1 ] may be used as a template.

Some parts of the docs need to be reviewed; for example ""Note that the Django development server automatically serves the static files of the admin app (and any other installed apps)"" [ 2 ] is actually only true if `django.contrib.staticfiles` is installed. 

It might be helpful to warn that `MEDIA_URL` and `STATIC_URL` must have different values, the same applies to `MEDIA_ROOT` and `STATIC_ROOT`. This is mostly an issue because historically (pre-contrib.staticfiles) a lot of projects were using `MEDIA_ROOT`/`MEDIA_URL` to serve static files.

[ 1 ] https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/howto/static-files/#serving-files-uploaded-by-a-user
[ 2 ] https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/howto/deployment/wsgi/modwsgi/#serving-the-admin-files
"	Cleanup/optimization	closed	Documentation	dev	Normal	fixed			Accepted	1	0	0	0	0	0