Get the contents of a django static file, regardless of whether it has been collected

static_fallback_open.py

import posixpath
from django.contrib.staticfiles import finders
from django.contrib.staticfiles.storage import staticfiles_storage

def static_fallback_open(static_path, mode='r'):
    writing = 'w' in mode or 'a' in mode

    if writing or staticfiles_storage.exists(static_path):
        return staticfiles_storage.open(static_path, mode)

    # fall back to finders path
    normalized_path = posixpath.normpath(static_path).lstrip('/')
    absolute_path = finders.find(normalized_path)
    if absolute_path is None:
        raise IOError("{0} does not exist".format(static_path))

    return open(absolute_path, mode)