Azure app service web application is throwing 500 internal server error when using whitenoise - CompressedManifestStaticFilesStorage and DEBUG = False

[karthimalyala]

Python Version

3.9

Django Version

3.2

Package Version

1.0

Description

In my Django project settings.py file, i am using DEBUG = False and whitenoise to serve my static content on azure app services web application.

When I use the following line which uses CompressedManifestStaticFilesStorage, I am getting 500 internal server error.

STATICFILES_STORAGE = ('whitenoise.storage.CompressedManifestStaticFilesStorage')

I was able to solve this problem by changing the above line to below,

STATICFILES_STORAGE = ('whitenoise.storage.CompressedStaticFilesStorage')

(or)

STORAGES={
    # ...
    "staticfiles": {
        "BACKEND": "whitenoise.storage.CompressedManifestStaticFilesStorage",
    },
}

I want to understand the rootcause of why it failed with DEBUG = False. We are not getting any error logs as well

With DEBUG = True, I don't see any error, it works fine but as you know it's not recommended to use Debug = True in production systems.

[adamchainz]

The error may be due to a reference to a static file that doesn't exist in the manifest.

If you aren't seeing an error message in your logs, try configure it so that they do show up. Maybe try Sentry.

[JasonWhisnant]

I am having the same issue. I followed the troubleshooting and ran "manage.py findstatic --verbosity 2 styles.css" which is the only css file currently referenced in my code. It showed the static file as existing in the correct folder (that was specified by the static_root setting). The error persists. It goes away if I comment out STATICFILES_STORAGE = 'whitenoise.storage.CompressedManifestStaticFilesStorage'.

I just want to reiterate that this is not due to a reference to a static file that doesn't exist in the manifest. As far as I can tell, the manifest is never created. Logging set up in the settings.py file shows the ValueError that is mentioned in the documentation

[nerdbaggy]

I am having the same issue, I am still trying to debug it.

When I have the following

STORAGES = {
    "staticfiles": {
        "BACKEND": "whitenoise.storage.CompressedManifestStaticFilesStorage",
    },
}

All of the template stuff using 'static' generates incorrect URL. With the above example my favicon static url is /favicon.png which causes the 500 error. If I comment out that settings.py section above my favicon is correct at /static/favicon.png

[nerdbaggy]

I figured it out, if you have a leading / in asset path it will throw the 500 error

Works

{% static "favicon.png" %}

Does not working with the whtienoise static backend, but it does with the built in Django static backend

{% static "/favicon.png" %}

[adamchainz]

I think this is behaviour from Django's ManifestStaticFilesStorage. As far as the manifest is concerned, the leading / makes it a different path that doesn't exist. We can't fix that here.