Amazon S3

When hosting a Django application on a cloud hosting provider, such as Heroku, using Amazon S3 for storing static and media files is often recommended. This is because Heroku's and other provider's filesystems are often not intended for permanent storage and does not support file uploads, and any files uploaded to the filesystem are not preserved.

This is because these files can take up a significant amount of disk space, which can increase server costs and slow down the performance of the application.

Using a cloud storage service also has other benefits, such as easy scalability and accessibility, reliability, and cost-effectiveness. Additionally, using a cloud storage service like Amazon S3 allows for better separation of concerns between the web server and the storage of files.

Remove files from storage when deleting their corresponding models entries:

Inside a model containing a file: add this method:

def delete(self, *args, **kwargs):
    remove_file_from_s3_FUNCTION_NAME_(sender=_MODEL_NAME_, instance=self, using=None)
    super().delete(*args, **kwargs)

at the bottom of models.py add:

For models with a single file field:

@receiver(post_delete, sender=_MODEL_NAME_)
def remove_file_from_s3_FUNCTION_NAME_(sender, instance, using, **kwargs):
    if instance._name_of_image_field_:
        file_name = instance._name_of_image_field_.name
        s3.delete_object(Bucket='_my_bucket_name_', Key=file_name)

For models with multiple file fields:

@receiver(post_delete, sender=_MODEL_NAME_)
def remove_file_from_s3_FUNCTION_NAME_(sender, instance, using, **kwargs):
    for field in ['_name_of_image_field_1_', '_name_of_image_field_2_']:
        image = getattr(instance, field)
        if image:
            file_name = image.name
            s3.delete_object(Bucket='_my_bucket_name_', Key=file_name)

DJANGO STORAGES (public access to all files)

Install the required packages

pip install django-storages
pip install boto3

Amazon AWS

Create an AWS account

Create a bucket

Go to All services -> Storage -> S3 -> Create Bucket
Add name and Location
De-select Block all public access -> Confirm selecting "I acknowledge that the..."
Create Bucket

Permissions

Select bucket -> Permissions -> Bucket policy -> Edit -> Policy generator
Select Type of Policy: S3 Bucket Policy
Principal *
Action GetObject
Amazon Resource Name: previous screen, copy and paste Bucket ARN, then add /*, for example: arn:aws:s3:::_YOUR_APP_/*
Add stratement -> Generate policy, copy and paste in Edit Bucket Policy Window

Create credentials

Account name -> My Security Credentials -> Access keys (access key ID and secret access key) -> Create New Access Key
Save Access Key ID
Save Secret Access Key

.env - Hide Amazon Keys

Inside .env paste:

AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID = ' Access Key ID '
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=' Secret Access Key '

settings.py

Add the following configuration

DEFAULT_FILE_STORAGE = 'storages.backends.s3boto3.S3Boto3Storage'
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID = config('AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID')
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY = config('AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY')
AWS_STORAGE_BUCKET_NAME = 'name_of_the_newly_created_bucket'
AWS_QUERYSTRING_AUTH = False
AWS_S3_FILE_OVERWRITE = False