Serving Files
Serving Files¶
In a production installation, the InvenTree web server application does not provide hosting of static files, or user-uploaded (media) files. Instead, these files should be served by a separate web server, such as Caddy, Nginx, or Apache.
Debug Mode
When running in production mode (i.e. the INVENTREE_DEBUG flag is disabled), a separate web server is required for serving static and media files. In DEBUG mode, the django webserver facilitates delivery of static and media files, but this is explicitly not suitable for a production environment.
Read More
You can find further information in the django documentation.
There are many different ways that a sysadmin might wish to handle this - and it depends on your particular installation requirements.
Static Files¶
Static files can be served without any need for authentication. In fact, they must be accessible without authentication, otherwise the unauthenticated views (such as the login screen) will not function correctly.
Media Files¶
It is highly recommended that the media files are served behind an authentication layer. This is because the media files are user-uploaded, and may contain sensitive information. Most modern web servers provide a way to serve files behind an authentication layer.
Example Configuration¶
The docker production example provides an example using Caddy to serve static and media files, and redirecting other requests to the InvenTree web server itself.
Caddy is a modern web server which is easy to configure and provides a number of useful features, including automatic SSL certificate generation.