In this post, I am going to show how to do Magento 2 Static Content Deploy.

What is Static View?

Static View is made of two terms.

Static refers to the caching of the static data for the site. If the file is not dynamically generated, then the file is static. It includes images and CSS generated from LESS.

On the other hand, “View” is the presentation layer of the Model-View-behaviour.

The deployment commands of Static View files allows you to write static content file for the Magento sites while your Magento 2 store is into production mode.

This step by step guide will help you to deploy Magento 2 Static Content.

Static view files are located in the <magento_root>/pub/static directory, and some are cached in the <magento_root>/var/view_preprocessed directory as well.

Magento 2 Static Content Deploy and Magento Modes

There are three Magento Modes:

1. Default
2. Developer
3. Production

The deployment of Static View files is affected by the Magento modes.

• Default and Developer Mode: Magento generates the Static View on-demand. However, the rest are cached in a file for quick access.
• Production Mode: Static files are not generated or cached

You can find the mode of your Magento store by quickly running the following commands in the root directory:

php bin/magento deploy:mode:show

You have to write static view files manually to the file system of your Magento 2 store by using the CLI command. After running the CLI command, you can restrict permissions to limit vulnerabilities and for the prevention of malicious overwriting of files.

Cleaning the Old files

Now, if your store is running on developer mode, you will have to clean the old files of CSS, JavaScript, Layouts, Images, etc…

There are two ways to this.

To clean the generated static View, follow these steps:

Manual Way

Delete all the files under the pub/static directory but leave the .htaccess file.

You can do this with the following command.

find . -depth -name .htaccess -prune -o -delete

Automated Way

The automated way to flush the cache is:

• Open the admin panel of your Magento 2 store.
• Navigate to SYSTEM → Tools → Cache Management
• Click on the Flush Static Files Cache.

How to Clear Magento Cache

Magento 2 Deploy Static Content Using CLI

Follow the below steps to configure and deploy Magento 2 Static Content via CLI.

• Login to Magento 2 server as the owner of the file system
• Delete the files under the pub/static directory, but leave the .htaccess file.
• Now run the code to enable static view files deployment.

php bin/magento setup:static-content:deploy -f

Note: Do ensure that the pub/static directory system is writable when you enable merging static view files in your Magento Admin

Deploy Static Content via command line

Check all the options by running the following command.

php bin/magento setup:static-content:deploy -h

Output:

Usage:
  setup:static-content:deploy [options] [--] [<languages>]...

Arguments:
  languages                                  Space-separated list of ISO-636 language codes for which to output static view files.

Options:
  -f, --force                                Deploy files in any mode.
  -s, --strategy[=STRATEGY]                  Deploy files using specified strategy. [default: "quick"]
  -a, --area[=AREA]                          Generate files only for the specified areas. [default: ["all"]] (multiple values allowed)
      --exclude-area[=EXCLUDE-AREA]          Do not generate files for the specified areas. [default: ["none"]] (multiple values allowed)
  -t, --theme[=THEME]                        Generate static view files for only the specified themes. [default: ["all"]] (multiple values allowed)
      --exclude-theme[=EXCLUDE-THEME]        Do not generate files for the specified themes. [default: ["none"]] (multiple values allowed)
  -l, --language[=LANGUAGE]                  Generate files only for the specified languages. [default: ["all"]] (multiple values allowed)
      --exclude-language[=EXCLUDE-LANGUAGE]  Do not generate files for the specified languages. [default: ["none"]] (multiple values allowed)
  -j, --jobs[=JOBS]                          Enable parallel processing using the specified number of jobs. [default: 0]
      --symlink-locale                       Create symlinks for the files of those locales, which are passed for deployment, but have no customizations.
      --content-version=CONTENT-VERSION      Custom version of static content can be used if running deployment on multiple nodes to ensure that static content version is identical and caching works properly.
      --refresh-content-version-only         Refreshing the version of static content only can be used to refresh static content in browser cache and CDN cache.
      --no-javascript                        Do not deploy JavaScript files.
      --no-css                               Do not deploy CSS files.
      --no-less                              Do not deploy LESS files.
      --no-images                            Do not deploy images.
      --no-fonts                             Do not deploy font files.
      --no-html                              Do not deploy HTML files.
      --no-misc                              Do not deploy files of other types (.md, .jbf, .csv, etc.).
      --no-html-minify                       Do not minify HTML files.
  -h, --help                                 Display this help message
  -q, --quiet                                Do not output any message
  -V, --version                              Display this application version
      --ansi                                 Force ANSI output
      --no-ansi                              Disable ANSI output
  -n, --no-interaction                       Do not ask any interactive question
  -v|vv|vvv, --verbose                       Increase the verbosity of messages: 1 for normal output, 2 for more verbose output and 3 for debug

Help:
  Deploys static view files

Also Read

How to Install Magento 2.4 with Command Line?
How to Change Magento 2 Base URL?
Magento 2 Commands: A Useful list for Magento Developers
Magento 2 Requirements that You Must Take care of

Final Words

Speed plays an important factor in the success of eCommerce store. You can boost the speed of the Magento 2 store by deploying the static content.

If you follow the post, you can easily deploy Magento 2 static content on your store.

Still, if there is any doubt or problem, please leave them in the comment box.