title: Django - Static files serving javascript , css and image files
body: <p>I need to server static files in my Django project.</p>
  
  <p>I would like to place them in /static directory and be able to reference them in my templates.</p>
  
  <p>I've been reading "Managing static files" in the documentation and I am confused.  I've followed the instructions but am not able to get it to work.</p>
  
  <p>1) I have put my static files in /static under each app in my project. </p>
  
  <p>2)  django.contrib.staticfiles is included under my INSTALLED_APPS. </p>
  
  <p>I've set the following variables in settings:</p>
  
  <pre><code>STATIC_ROOT = '/static/'
  STATIC_URL  = '/static/'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>In my template I have the following line:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;script type="text/javascript" src={{ STATIC_URL }}/a_ajax.js&gt;&lt;/script&gt; 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>however when I bring up the page and look at source the line is:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;script type="text/javascript" src=/a_ajax.js&gt;&lt;/script&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>It seems like nothing was passed to the template.  </p>
  
  <p>What am I doing wrong?</p>