Django Backend on Azure App Service: Code only works when debug is set to True

Question

Django Backend on Azure App Service: Code only works when debug is set to True

Nick Mol 1

I am deploying a Django app on Azure App Services. When Debug = True the application works perfect. I can view my APIs, navigate to different pages, and create and delete records in my database.

However, when debug = False I get an internal server error 500. I don't see any warnings in my application logs or the log stream. I already tried to change the allowed_hosts, but this does not seem to be the cause of the problem.

I just disabled the STATICFILES_STORAGE setting in my deployment settings. When I now run the code in debug = False it works. However, I assume I will need whitenoise to handle my static files....


#STATICFILES_STORAGE = 'whitenoise.storage.CompressedManifestStaticFilesStorage'

What is the best way to solve this? Or can I simply leave out Staticfiles_storage without consequences?

https://github.com/NickMol/Django-React-Deploy-Tutorial

4 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

Konstantinos Passadis 19,686 MVP

Hello @Nick Mol !

It's not recommended to leave out STATICFILES_STORAGE in your Django app, especially in a production environment. When DEBUG is set to True, Django serves static files itself, but in production (when DEBUG is set to False), you should use a production-ready static files solution like Whitenoise or Django's built-in collectstatic command to serve static files efficiently. If disabling STATICFILES_STORAGE makes it work, it might indicate an issue with your static files configuration. Review your static files setup, check file permissions, and make sure your static files are correctly collected and served with Whitenoise or another suitable storage backend.

EXAMPLE :

To collect static files in Django, follow these steps:

Ensure that your STATIC_URL and STATIC_ROOT settings are correctly configured in your Django project's settings.

# settings.py
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'staticfiles')

Run the following command to collect static files:

python manage.py collectstatic

This command will gather all static files from your apps into the directory specified by STATIC_ROOT.

Make sure your web server (e.g., Gunicorn or uWSGI) serves these static files correctly in production. You may use a middleware like Whitenoise or configure your web server to serve static files.

By following these steps, your Django app will collect and serve static files in a production environment while DEBUG is set to False.

Also , Verify that your ALLOWED_HOSTS setting includes the correct domain names or IP addresses.

I hope this helps!

The answer or portions of it may have been assisted by AI Source: ChatGPT Subscription

Kindly mark the answer as Accepted and Upvote in case it helped!

Regards

Nick Mol 1

This does not solve my issues. In my deployment settings I have specified all of the settings provided in the answer. I also ran collectstatic and it does not work. The configuration is also the same as in the example project of Microsoft: https://github.com/Azure-Samples/msdocs-django-postgresql-sample-app/blob/main/azureproject/production.py

import os
from .settings import * 
from .settings import BASE_DIR

ALLOWED_HOSTS = [os.environ['WEBSITE_HOSTNAME']]
CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS = ['https://'+os.environ['WEBSITE_HOSTNAME']]
DEBUG = False
SECRET_KEY = os.environ['MY_SECRET_KEY']

MIDDLEWARE = [
    'corsheaders.middleware.CorsMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware',
    'whitenoise.middleware.WhiteNoiseMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware',
]

# CORS_ALLOWED_ORIGINS = [
# ]

STATICFILES_STORAGE = 'whitenoise.storage.CompressedManifestStaticFilesStorage'
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'staticfiles')


CONNECTION = os.environ['AZURE_POSTGRESQL_CONNECTIONSTRING']
CONNECTION_STR = {pair.split('=')[0]:pair.split('=')[1] for pair in CONNECTION.split(' ')}

DATABASES = {
    "default": {
        "ENGINE": "django.db.backends.postgresql",
        "NAME": CONNECTION_STR['dbname'],
        "HOST": CONNECTION_STR['host'],
        "USER": CONNECTION_STR['user'],
        "PASSWORD": CONNECTION_STR['password'],
    }
}

Konstantinos Passadis 19,686 Reputation points MVP

2024-01-03T19:02:43.3833333+00:00

Hello @Nick Mol !

Can you provide some logging or Application Insights output ?

--

Regards
Nick Mol 1 Reputation point

2024-01-03T20:13:34.2833333+00:00

Can you tell me where to get detailed logs. Log stream does not provide details, and neither do the application logs.. (see attached image)

Answer 2

Bryan Trach 17,837 Microsoft Employee Moderator

@Nick Mol You mentioned that disabling STATICFILES_STORAGE in your deployment settings resolved the issue, but you are concerned about not using WhiteNoise to handle your static files. You can still use WhiteNoise to serve your static files even if you disable STATICFILES_STORAGE.

To do this, you can add the following code to your settings.py file:

MIDDLEWARE = [
    # ...
    'whitenoise.middleware.WhiteNoiseMiddleware',
    # ...
]

STATICFILES_STORAGE = 'whitenoise.storage.CompressedManifestStaticFilesStorage'

This will enable WhiteNoise to serve your static files even if STATICFILES_STORAGE is disabled. Make sure to install WhiteNoise by running pip install whitenoise in your virtual environment.

Since you did not find any actionable errors in log stream, can you also try running your app locally with DEBUG set to False to see if you can reproduce the issue and debug it locally?

Konstantinos Passadis 19,686 Reputation points MVP

2024-01-04T05:06:01.4166667+00:00

Also :

You can try removing the WhiteNoiseMiddleware from your MIDDLEWARE setting to see if this resolves the problem.

Regards
Bryan Trach 17,837 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2024-01-04T06:08:44.7033333+00:00

@Konstantinos Passadis Thank you for sharing this great idea. Hopefully this will help Nick. We appreciate all of the help you are providing. Happy New Year!
Nick Mol 1 Reputation point

2024-01-04T08:49:12.6566667+00:00

Hi @Anonymous , thanks for your response. It does work as it should if I remove the STATICFILES_STORAGE or STORAGE variables. However, those variables do have a function since they handle caching and compression.

I just enable logging in my Django app and the detailed error is:

Missing staticfiles manifest entry for 'admin/css/base.css'

The css file is present in the staticfiles folder. But for some reason it does throw an error.

Answer 3

Konstantinos Passadis 19,686 MVP

Hello @Nick Mol !

Please verify that you have an Application Configuration Setting named

WEBSITE_HOSTNAME

and another MY_SECRET_KEY

Sample

configuration_azure_app_settings

I hope this helps!

Kindly mark the answer as Accepted and Upvote in case it helped!

Regards

Answer 4

Konstantinos Passadis 19,686 MVP

Hello @Nick Mol !

Please have a look :

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/46479378/valueerror-at-missing-staticfiles-manifest-entry-for

I hope this helps!

Kindly mark the answer as Accepted and Upvote in case it helped!

Regards

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Django Backend on Azure App Service: Code only works when debug is set to True

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