Collectfast: A Faster Collectstatic for Django

2.2.0 · active · verified Thu Apr 16

Collectfast dramatically speeds up Django's `collectstatic` command when using cloud storage by only uploading static files that have changed. It leverages MD5 hashes (ETags) or modification times to determine if a file needs to be re-uploaded. The current version is 2.2.0, with a release cadence of a few times per year, focusing on compatibility and performance improvements.

Common errors

```
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'collectfast'
```
cause The `collectfast` package is not installed in the active Python environment.

fix Run `pip install collectfast` to install the package.
```
ImproperlyConfigured: COLLECTFAST_STRATEGY setting is required.
```
cause Since version 2.0.0, collectfast requires an explicit strategy to be set, as automatic guessing was removed.

fix Add `COLLECTFAST_STRATEGY = 'collectfast.strategies.aws.S3Strategy'` (or the appropriate strategy for your setup) to your Django `settings.py`.
```
ImproperlyConfigured: collectfast doesn't support your storage backend
```
cause The `STATICFILES_STORAGE` backend you have configured either does not have a corresponding `collectfast` strategy, or `COLLECTFAST_STRATEGY` is incorrectly configured for it.

fix Ensure `STATICFILES_STORAGE` is set to a supported backend (e.g., `storages.backends.s3boto3.S3Boto3Storage`) and `COLLECTFAST_STRATEGY` is correctly configured for it (e.g., `'collectfast.strategies.aws.S3Strategy'` for S3).
```
AttributeError: 'S3BotoStorage' object has no attribute 'bucket_name' (or similar errors related to `boto`)
```
cause This typically occurs when using the older `storages.backends.s3boto.S3BotoStorage` with `collectfast` 2.0.0+, which removed support for the `boto` library and its associated strategy.

fix Migrate your `STATICFILES_STORAGE` to `storages.backends.s3boto3.S3Boto3Storage` and update `COLLECTFAST_STRATEGY` to `collectfast.strategies.aws.S3Strategy` to use `boto3`.

Warnings

breaking `collectfast` 2.0.0 dropped support for Python 3.5 and Django 1.11. It also removed the `boto` strategy (`collectfast.strategies.boto.BotoStrategy`), requiring migration to `boto3` strategies for S3.
Fix: Upgrade Python to 3.6+ and Django to 2.0+. If using S3, ensure `django-storages` is configured with `S3Boto3Storage` and `COLLECTFAST_STRATEGY` is set to `collectfast.strategies.aws.S3Strategy`.
breaking Starting with `collectfast` 2.0.0, the `COLLECTFAST_STRATEGY` setting must be explicitly defined in your Django `settings.py` as automatic strategy guessing was removed.
Fix: Add `COLLECTFAST_STRATEGY = 'collectfast.strategies.aws.S3Strategy'` (or other relevant strategy, e.g., `collectfast.strategies.filesystem.FileSystemStrategy`) to your `settings.py`.
deprecated `collectfast.strategies.boto.BotoStrategy` was deprecated in version 1.3.0 and completely removed in 2.0.0. Using this strategy will result in errors.
Fix: Migrate to `collectfast.strategies.aws.S3Strategy` (for `boto3`) and ensure `django-storages` is configured with `S3Boto3Storage`.
gotcha Prior to `collectfast` 2.2.0, there was a bug where gzip compression level for static files was inconsistent with S3's default handling, potentially causing issues with served content if not explicitly managed.
Fix: Upgrade `collectfast` to 2.2.0 or later to ensure consistent gzip compression levels for S3.

Install

pip install collectfast Install collectfast

Imports

Strategy
```
from collectfast.strategies.base import Strategy
```
Used for creating custom strategies or extending existing ones, especially for implementing custom hooks like `post_copy_hook` or `on_skip_hook` introduced in 2.2.0.

Quickstart

To quickly set up `collectfast`, add it to your `INSTALLED_APPS` and configure the necessary settings in your Django `settings.py`. Ensure `COLLECTFAST_ENABLED` is `True` and, crucially, set `COLLECTFAST_STRATEGY` to match your static files storage backend. This example shows configuration for AWS S3 using `django-storages`.

import os

# settings.py

# Add collectfast to your INSTALLED_APPS
INSTALLED_APPS = [
    # ... other apps
    'collectfast',
    'storages', # if using django-storages
]

# Enable Collectfast
COLLECTFAST_ENABLED = True

# Explicitly set the strategy (required since collectfast 2.0.0)
# Choose the strategy that matches your STATICFILES_STORAGE backend
# For AWS S3 with django-storages s3boto3 backend:
COLLECTFAST_STRATEGY = 'collectfast.strategies.aws.S3Strategy'

# Configure your STATICFILES_STORAGE (example for AWS S3 with django-storages)
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID = os.environ.get('AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID', 'your_access_key')
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY = os.environ.get('AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY', 'your_secret_key')
AWS_STORAGE_BUCKET_NAME = os.environ.get('AWS_STORAGE_BUCKET_NAME', 'your-bucket-name')
AWS_S3_REGION_NAME = os.environ.get('AWS_S3_REGION_NAME', 'us-east-1')
AWS_S3_SIGNATURE_VERSION = 's3v4'
AWS_S3_FILE_OVERWRITE = False
AWS_DEFAULT_ACL = None # Or 'public-read' if files should be publicly accessible

STATICFILES_STORAGE = 'storages.backends.s3boto3.S3Boto3Storage'
STATIC_URL = f"https://{AWS_STORAGE_BUCKET_NAME}.s3.amazonaws.com/"

# Define STATIC_ROOT for local collectstatic (even if collectfast bypasses it for cloud storage)
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)), 'staticfiles')

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