Nginx – How to serve static files for multiple Django projects via nginx to same domain

djangonginxstatic-filesuwsgi

I am trying to setup my nginx conf so that I can serve the relevant files for my multiple Django projects. Ultimately I want each app to be available at www.example.com/app1, www.example.com/app2 etc. They all serve static files from a 'static-files' directory located in their respective project root.

The project structure:

Home
  Ubuntu
    Web
        www.example.com
            ref
            logs
            app
                app1
                    app1
                        static
                            bower_components
                        templatetags
                    app1_project
                    templates
                    static-files

                app2
                    app2
                        static
                        templates
                        templatetags
                    app2_project
                    static-files

                app3
                    tests
                    templates
                    static-files
                    static
                    app3_project
                    app3
            venv

When I use the conf below, there are no problems for serving the static-files for the app that I designate in the /static/ location. I can also access the different apps found at their locations. However, I cannot figure out how to serve all of the static files for all the apps at the same time. I have looked into using the 'try_files' command for the static location, but cannot figure out how to see if it is working or not.

Nginx Conf – Only serving static files for one app:

server {
listen 80;

server_name example.com; 
server_name www.example.com;

access_log /home/ubuntu/web/www.example.com/logs/access.log;
error_log  /home/ubuntu/web/www.example.com/logs/error.log;

root /home/ubuntu/web/www.example.com/;

location /static/ {
        alias /home/ubuntu/web/www.example.com/app/app1/static-files/; 
}


location /media/ {
        alias /home/ubuntu/web/www.example.com/media/;
    }

location /app1/ {
    include      uwsgi_params;
    uwsgi_param SCRIPT_NAME /app1;
    uwsgi_modifier1 30;
    uwsgi_pass   unix:///home/ubuntu/web/www.example.com/app1.sock;
}

location /app2/ {
    include      uwsgi_params;
    uwsgi_param SCRIPT_NAME /app2;
    uwsgi_modifier1 30;
    uwsgi_pass   unix:///home/ubuntu/web/www.example.com/app2.sock;
}

location /app3/ {
    include      uwsgi_params;
    uwsgi_param SCRIPT_NAME /app3;
    uwsgi_modifier1 30;
    uwsgi_pass   unix:///home/ubuntu/web/www.example.com/app3.sock;
}
# what to serve if upstream is not available or crashes
error_page 400 /static/400.html;
error_page 403 /static/403.html;
error_page 404 /static/404.html;
error_page 500 502 503 504 /static/500.html;

# Compression
gzip on;
gzip_http_version 1.0;
gzip_comp_level 5;
gzip_proxied any;
gzip_min_length  1100;
gzip_buffers 16 8k;
gzip_types text/plain text/css application/x-javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;
# Some version of IE 6 don't handle compression well on some mime-types, 
# so just disable for them
gzip_disable "MSIE [1-6].(?!.*SV1)";
# Set a vary header so downstream proxies don't send cached gzipped 
# content to IE6
gzip_vary on;
}

Essentially I want to have something like (I know this won't work)

location /static/ {
    alias /home/ubuntu/web/www.example.com/app/app1/static-files/; 
    alias /home/ubuntu/web/www.example.com/app/app2/static-files/; 
    alias /home/ubuntu/web/www.example.com/app/app3/static-files/; 
}

or (where it can serve the static files based on the uri)

location /static/ {
     try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
}

So basically, if I use try_files like above, is the problem in my project directory structure? Or am I totally off base on this and I need to put each app in a subdomain instead of going this route? Thanks for any suggestions

TLDR: I want to go to:
www.example.com/APP_NAME_HERE

And have nginx serve the static location:

/home/ubuntu/web/www.example.com/app/APP_NAME_HERE/static-files/;

Best Answer

The simple option would be to create subdomains for each app (eg: app1.example.com). That way you can have a alias for your static-files directory on each url.