Django serve files outside the web root

Question

I currently have Django set up to upload files to:

/path/to/project/uploads

This works great. This folder is in the root folder of the project so the files cannot be served directly from a web URL, which is what I want, the files are "CVs" uploaded by users.

I've had a look at a third-party django app called filetransfers which would do the job, but I'm wondering if there is a way with Django core to serve files from outside the media folder.

Any help would be great.

Andy

Answer 1

Depending on what web server you are using I would recommend using X-sendfile if you use Apache or X-accel-redirect if you use Nginx. But remember you will need to change setting in your web server. But this is far more efficient way of serving files than using Django to do it.

Answer 2

If what you want is to keep control on how your files are served / who can see them etc, then the simplest solution is to write a custom view serving theses files. You just have to provide the file's content as the response body and set the appropriate response headers (file type, content length etc). Reading the FineManual(tm) part about the Response object should be a good starting point.

Answer 3

Resolved using FileWrapper().

Thanks anyway.