Django, getting 500 error when debug=False

Question

The app works when debug = True, when debug = False I am getting 500 errors on both my computer and Heroku.

The http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/ part is working. http://127.0.0.1:8000/ is the one giving 500 errors, so I am guessing the mistake is in the static file. I ran

python manage.py collectstatic

and create staticfiles, still same issue.

Any suggestions:

This is what I see on Terminal:

[25/May/2021 00:37:43] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 500 145

This is my settings.py:

from pathlib import Path

# Build paths inside the project like this: BASE_DIR / 'subdir'.
BASE_DIR = Path(__file__).resolve().parent.parent

# Quick-start development settings - unsuitable for production
# See https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.1/howto/deployment/checklist/

import os

# using django-environ to read from .env
# https://github.com/joke2k/django-environ
import environ

env = environ.Env(
    # set casting, default value
    # DEBUG=(bool, False)
)

# reading .env file
environ.Env.read_env()

# SECURITY WARNING: keep the secret key used in production secret!

SECRET_KEY = os.environ.get('DJANGO_SECRET_KEY', '%)4ja40!mqevxsrj%2^o+2&a=8&t4oy$*^d-e5t^p^-^crpyy#')

# SECURITY WARNING: don't run with debug turned on in production!
# DEBUG = True
DEBUG = os.environ.get('DJANGO_DEBUG', '') != 'False'

ALLOWED_HOSTS = [
    '127.0.0.1',
    '.localhost',
    '.herokuapp.com'
]

# Application definition

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
    'attendance.apps.AttendanceConfig',
    'pgtrigger',


]

MIDDLEWARE = [
    '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',


]

ROOT_URLCONF = 'Edmin.urls'

TEMPLATES = [
    {
        'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
        'DIRS': [BASE_DIR / 'templates'],
        'APP_DIRS': True,
        'OPTIONS': {
            'context_processors': [
                'django.template.context_processors.debug',
                'django.template.context_processors.request',
                'django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth',
                'django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages',
            ],
        },
    },
]

WSGI_APPLICATION = 'Edmin.wsgi.application'

# Database
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.1/ref/settings/#databases

# DATABASES = {
#     'default': {
#         'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
#         'NAME': BASE_DIR / 'db.sqlite3',
#     }
# }

DATABASES = {
    # read os.environ['DATABASE_URL'] and raises ImproperlyConfigured exception if not found
    'default': env.db(),
    # read os.environ['SQLITE_URL']
    'extra': env.db('SQLITE_URL', default='sqlite:////db.sqlite3')
}

# Heroku: Update database configuration from $DATABASE_URL.
import dj_database_url
db_from_env = dj_database_url.config(conn_max_age=500)
DATABASES['default'].update(db_from_env)


# Password validation
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.1/ref/settings/#auth-password-validators

AUTH_PASSWORD_VALIDATORS = [
    {
        'NAME': 'django.contrib.auth.password_validation.UserAttributeSimilarityValidator',
    },
    {
        'NAME': 'django.contrib.auth.password_validation.MinimumLengthValidator',
    },
    {
        'NAME': 'django.contrib.auth.password_validation.CommonPasswordValidator',
    },
    {
        'NAME': 'django.contrib.auth.password_validation.NumericPasswordValidator',
    },
]

# Internationalization
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.1/topics/i18n/

LANGUAGE_CODE = 'en-us'

TIME_ZONE = 'America/Chicago'

USE_I18N = True

USE_L10N = True

USE_TZ = True

# Static files (CSS, JavaScript, Images)
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.1/howto/static-files/

STATIC_URL = '/static/'

# Redirect to home URL after login (Default redirects to /accounts/profile/)
LOGIN_REDIRECT_URL = '/'

# Simplified static file serving.
# https://warehouse.python.org/project/whitenoise/
STATICFILES_STORAGE = 'whitenoise.storage.CompressedManifestStaticFilesStorage'

# The absolute path to the directory where collectstatic will collect static files for deployment.
STATIC_ROOT = BASE_DIR / 'staticfiles'

Answer 1

When debug is False, Django sends debug email to the administrator, so started by printing debug email to console by adding the code below.

EMAIL_BACKEND = 'django.core.mail.backends.console.EmailBackend'

And the error was caused by

Missing staticfiles manifest entry for

'/js/chart-js-config.js'

I removed

STATICFILES_STORAGE = 'whitenoise.storage.CompressedManifestStaticFilesStorage'

and replace it with

STATICFILES_STORAGE = 'django.contrib.staticfiles.storage.StaticFilesStorage'

and ran collectstatic