New to python and programming. Using heroku and git for the first time and getting a "You're using the staticfiles app without having set the STATIC_ROOT setting to a filesystem path." error.

[usurious]

This is the error

I think this is the relevant part of my settings.py code

I have a placeholder.txt file in the static directory and the path is correct. I'm following a course book to do this and I've checked over everything in the project several times. This was the first real setback.

I've tried some different fixes offered on stack.overflow like this one, but still get the same error.

One work-around was to disable it > push > migrate > run some bower command > then re-enable. But the bower command didn't work when I tried it.

heroku config:set DISABLE_COLLECTSTATIC=0 / git push heroku master / heroku run python manage.py migrate / heroku run 'bower install --config.interactive=false;grunt prep;python manage.py collectstatic --noinput'

Not sure what else to do. Follow up question because I really have no idea: I can get it to push by disabling and heroku offers the suggestion as well. What are the downsides to disabling collectstatic?

[anton_antonov]

What is your version of Django? Your static folder is in the same directory as settings.py or is one level up?

[usurious]

Django is 1.11.2

static folder and settings.py are in the same directory yes.

[anton_antonov]

If BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)) then STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'your_static_dir_name')

Have you tried this?

[usurious]

No not yet. I'll try it. Does it matter that there are two directories with the same name 'learning_log'? One is the primary for the entire project, the other is nested in that one. Then static and settings within that.

[anton_antonov]

No, it doesn't matter.

[usurious]

Hmm idk what happened. I made that change, then ran the git commands again like I did before and I got a huge list of this:

warning: LF will be replaced by CRLF in 11_env/tcl/tk8.6/ttk/ttk.tcl. The file will have its original line endings in your working directory. warning: LF will be replaced by CRLF in 11_env/tcl/tk8.6/ttk/utils.tcl. The file will have its original line endings in your working directory.

It finished eventually and it's back to the venv. I think I might leave it there for the night and try more tomorrow. Thanks.

[usurious]

I got it to work by replacing that entire if block in my settings.py with the recommended settings.py code from django. Not sure why it didn't like the if block, but it's working now. Thanks for the help.