Sending images from ios to server/database - ios

Question

I have an app where user selects 5 imagesfrom photo library, then i send to send those 5 UIImages to a nodejs server and store them in a mysql database, however i am getting many issues with this approach when i fetch the data from the database and try to convert back to uiimage, also many people here have said that its better to store the image url or path to image in the database instead of the actual image , so i have decided to try that approach however i do not know how to get an image url? Or how to get the path of the image? My app still needs to send an image from the iOS device, to nodejs server, store the actual image, and retrieve the images so other users can see it but where and how do i store the image?
UPDATE: so my issue is I start with a UIImage in swift, convert it to base64 string representation, send to nodejs server, and insert it into mysql database, but when i send the base64 string representation from the mysql table back to the ios device i get an error trying to convert the string back to a uiimage, i convert the string back to Data object and then try to create a uiimage from that data object but the uiimage is always nil, and i dont get an error description from xcode so i do not know how to go about this?
func sendToNodeServer()
{
let url: URL = URL(string: "http://localhost:8081/testInsert")!
let session = URLSession.shared
var request = URLRequest(url: url)
request.httpMethod = "POST"
request.cachePolicy = NSURLRequest.CachePolicy.reloadIgnoringCacheData
let imageData:NSData = UIImagePNGRepresentation(imV.image!)! as NSData
let strBase64:String = imageData.base64EncodedString(options: .lineLength64Characters)
let paramString = "pic=" + strBase64
request.httpBody = paramString.data(using: String.Encoding.utf8)
let task = session.dataTask(with: request)
{ data, response, error in
if error != nil
{
print("error in web request")
}
else
{
}
}//completion handler end
task.resume() //start the web reuqest
}
func getFromNodeServer()
{
let url: URL = URL(string: "http://localhost:8081/testgrab")!
let session = URLSession.shared
var request = URLRequest(url: url)
request.httpMethod = "POST"
request.cachePolicy = NSURLRequest.CachePolicy.reloadIgnoringCacheData
let task = session.dataTask(with: request)
{ data, response, error in
if error != nil
{
print("error in web request")
}
else
{
DispatchQueue.main.async
{
self.parseWeb2(stuff: data) //stoer results in class member
}
}
}//completion handler end
task.resume() //start the web reuqest
}
func parseWeb2(stuff: Data?)
{
if stuff != nil
{
if let dataAsAny: NSArray = try? JSONSerialization.jsonObject(with: stuff!, options: .mutableContainers) as! NSArray
{
let dic: [String: AnyObject] = dataAsAny[0] as! [String: AnyObject]
let str: String = dic["value"] as! String
let data: NSData = NSData(base64Encoded: str, options: NSData.Base64DecodingOptions.ignoreUnknownCharacters)!
//ERROR, UIImage is always nil
let p: UIImage = UIImage(data: data as Data)!
imV.image = p
}
}
}
//nodejs code
//import modules
var path = require("path");
var bodyParser = require('body-parser');
var express = require('express');
var mysql = require("mysql");
var fs = require('fs');
var app = express();
app.use(bodyParser.json({limit: "50mb"}));
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({limit: "50mb", extended: true, parameterLimit:50000}));
var con = mysql.createConnection(
{ /*my credentials*/ } );
app.post('/testInsert', function (req, res)
{
var queryString = "Insert into Test(value) VALUES ( ? );";
con.query(queryString,[req.body.pic],function(err,rows)
{
if(err) throw err;
});//CON.QUERY end
});
app.post('/testgrab', function (req, res)
{
var queryString = "select test.value from test where id = 3;";
con.query(queryString,function(err,rows)
{
if(err) throw err;
res.send(rows);
});//CON.QUERY end
});
//mysql has 1 table called test with 2 colums (id,value) of type (int, medium text)

Answer 1

I solved my problem, the issue was that base 64 string contains the characters +/= which aren't allowed in URL encoding so i had to convert my base 64 string to correct url encoded format then i upload the string and can retrieve it correctly, to url encode the string i added percent escapes for the +=/ chars