[Python] adding IDE & static related stuff

[meysam81]

Reasons for making this change:

VSC should not track IDE generated files, nor should it track statics; so that's why this PR is created.

Links to documentation supporting these rule changes:

I couldn't find any official doc, but it was annoying to me so I thought it may be useful for others as well.

If this is a new template:

• I don't know if it's gonna be of any use but I started the work from here

[shiftkey]

VSC should not track IDE generated files

We maintain a Global/VisualStudioCode.gitignore template here that covers everything you should need.

nor should it track statics;

I'm not familiar with this - can you elaborate?

[meysam81]

When python manage.py collectstatic is invoked, a static directory is created. So that's that.

[shiftkey]

Thanks for the contribution @meysam81!

[metp]

nor should it track statics

Static also includes css and js files. Why shouldn't a VCS track them? By adding static to gitignore, app specific static folders are ignored which shouldn't happen. collectstatic will collect from these specific folders:

Files are searched by using the enabled finders. The default is to look in all locations defined in STATICFILES_DIRS and in the 'static' directory of apps specified by the INSTALLED_APPS setting.

[meysam81]

nor should it track statics

Static also includes css and js files. Why shouldn't a VCS track them? By adding static to gitignore, app specific static folders are ignored which shouldn't happen. collectstatic will collect from these specific folders:

Files are searched by using the enabled finders. The default is to look in all locations defined in STATICFILES_DIRS and in the 'static' directory of apps specified by the INSTALLED_APPS setting.

You're right; we should consider css and js files. But I'd say that those static source code files are not (or better should not) be in the root of the project and therefore, probably a better solution is to ignore the root static and track the app related statics like the following:

static
!*/static

[meysam81]

And if for any reason someone liked the idea of having the static in the root directory, there is always the option for that too: git add --force

[metp]

Not sure about this either. As Django states in its guide:

Your project will probably also have static assets that aren’t tied to a particular app. In addition to using a static/ directory inside your apps, you can define a list of directories (STATICFILES_DIRS) in your settings file where Django will also look for static files. For example:
STATICFILES_DIRS = [ os.path.join(BASE_DIR, "static"), '/var/www/static/', ]

where BASE_DIR is normally the root directory. I think we should better not include static and media into the gitignore as both are really dependent on the project structure and configuration. I would rather define one rule more on my own in my gitignore instead of finding out that my changes haven't been tracked (as it happened to me 😉 ).

[meysam81]

Fair enough.
But are you sure about media? Is it a good idea to track production site's binaries?

[metp]

As MEDIA_ROOT doesn't have a default value set, I am not sure whether to assume media as a name. uploads would be rational as well. Additionally we don't work with VCS and commit in production environments (rather deploy to them) so we don't track production site binaries. The only reason I could think of why this rule could be useful is for testing the file upload feature locally right?

[meysam81]

or maybe for something like favicon; hence 'production site binaries'

[metp]

Don't these just count as static files too and thus be placed in static?

[meysam81]

Yes you're right.
I think the media (or even uploads) would better be there then, or wouldn't you agree? I can't think of anything that will need the tracking of VCS in there; cause everything that'll end up there, is probably auto generated or even data that should be backed up using other means.

[metp]

Yes that's right, auto generated stuff doesn't have to be tracked. But in case someone only has access to the result of generated stuff (e.g when using third party assets), they again would like to track them. Also I still would use media and static for their actual use cases, user uploaded files and static files. In case people want parts of static not be tracked, they can just add project specific gitignore rules :)

[meysam81]

@shiftkey, maybe revert this commit then?

[shiftkey]

@meysam81 done: #3363