I'm building a web-app using ruby on rails (4.2.5),
I need the user to be able to upload multiple files as attachments when creating an object (called "Request" in this case).
I was able to implement carrierwave (0.9) and users can upload a file to each request, but turns out that the multiple files functionality requires an array-type column, which is not available as a datatype in the SQLite database which I am using.
From the above things, I think it seems that you can use JSON to do that, but I don't know how that works.
I would like to know how I can work around this problem and allow the user to upload multiple files to the request, even if I should use an entirely different method.
Thank you
Related
I wish to get the benefits of Rails Active Storage, eg the metadata of files being stored in my database etc, but the files are already on my S3 compatible storage.
Is there a way to add the appropriate database records and link to the right instance of my model?
I'm thinking along the lines of a rake task to iterate all model instances and find a matching file in the service somehow?
I am working on a little app and I am curious if there is a way for a user to use the generated scaffolding to both (1) assign an image file name to a field, and (2) to automatically upload that file to the server when successful.
The idea is to create a simpler editorial process. My understanding is that including a blob in the table would not be good coding standards, so... if I can't store it in the database directly, then we need to store the image file name. But at the same time we need to ensure that that image is truly available on the server. In which case I'd like to cover both cases at the same time - allowing the editor to do their job.
is there an existing gem that I can leverage? Thanks
I'm not quite sure about your use case, and it seems like that's important, something about adding an image in a text editing field?
To answer one question, no, you can't do it with the default Rails scoffolding, although RailsAdmin and ActiveAdmin have paperclip support (and yes, to second #emaillenin, paperclip is probably the most common option).
Also check out JQuery File Upload for my favorite "scaffolding"-esque file uploader; although it's more work than say RailsAdmin, it's a great experience because you get thumbnail previews while the upload is going and progress bars all for free.
If it helps, I have a photo gallery project stored on Github, not "open source" in the sense that I attempted to make it useful to others, but I don't care if people browse it. It uses jquery-file-upload. Useful files:
Gemfile has:
gem 'paperclip'
gem 'jquery-fileupload-rails'
Then the photo model, categories controller for uploading photos as a nested resource, and the file-upload template translated to HAML.
How about Paperclip gem? - It lets you upload images, assign filename to a column in your model, validations on your attachments and helper functions to display them in your views.
Paperclip is intended as an easy file attachment library for Active
Record. The intent behind it was to keep setup as easy as possible and
to treat files as much like other attributes as possible. This means
they aren't saved to their final locations on disk, nor are they
deleted if set to nil, until ActiveRecord::Base#save is called. It
manages validations based on size and presence, if required.
Some alternatives - CarrierWave and more.
I need a tiny (less than 100 total) document store in a Rails 3.2 app where a user can create, edit, save, and delete rich text documents (ideally including images and other attached items). There is no file system available. Everthing must go in PostgreSQL database tables. The documents will serve as system-wide email and message banner templates.
My approach has been CKEditor. But the ckeditor gem seems wired for attachments as files. Also, it does not provide create/update storage of the document itself, just attachments.
I know how to roll my own model/controller/view the CKEditor but surely there's a simpler way.
So what is the most direct way to my goal of the rich text document store? Is there a plugin or gem?
More CKEditor references: This thread makes it look like a major project, but it's 2 years old. This one makes it sound like the default, but no other document does.
More
Using S3, Dropbox as suggested are also nogo. As I said, data must reside in PgSQL tables. Good news: found the paperclip_database gem. Bad news: doesn't work seamlessly with the ckeditor gem. The main issue boils out to this bit in the source file database.rb:
def setup_paperclip_files_model
#TODO: This fails when your model is in a namespace.
Indeed it does, as in the Ckeditor::Asset model! Trying a monkey patch now. If anyone has already made these three gems work together correctly, I'll give you the bounty for a pointer!
Pretty sure CKEditor makes it fairly simple to edit database form fields, which is all you'd need for editing the document itself, correct?
As far as attachment storage, you can use paperclip to manage the attachments -- file storage is just the default. If you use paperclip, you can then use one of many storage options from there, such as Amazon S3 storage, Dropbox, or create your own.
Hope that helps.
The first thread you linked to has it correctly: you need to (find or) write a custom server connector, and configure CKEditor to use it. You can find the relevant updated docs here:
http://docs.ckeditor.com/#!/guide/dev_file_browser_api
I'm wondering if there's a way to store CSS asset paths, like background images, in the database so that they're customizable without accessing or rewriting the code. I've looked at some template engines, like liquid, but think they're a overkill for what I want to do. I only want a tiny bit of customization in my views between various deployments of the same app codebase, not anything for various users.
I've not looked much at Rails 3.1, but from what I understand the CSS assets are compiled and aren't static any longer, so -- does that mean I can write something like that into my CSS in rails 3.1 that pulls from the database? I usually deploy to Heroku and aren't sure if they're supporting 3.1 yet.
Anyone have any better strategies or ideas?
Storing binary files like images in the database can quickly become cumbersome. There was a time when we were storing user uploads like PDF's and such in the DB but it became unmanageable. We quickly moved it all over to S3 and made Paperclip store and retrieve the files there (encrypting the files before saving them to S3, and sending them over SSL since the files were potentially sensitive) and it made things much saner.
I'd say best bet for you is to use S3. Since
On heroku you have a limited
database size (depending on your
plan) and could quickly run out if
you're storing binaries there.
You can't dynamically save new files
to the filesystem on heroku, and
S3 is cheap as hell (and free for
most casual use) to store and
retrieve files.
EDIT based on your comment:
Ok I mis-understood the question. Either store the image path in the database or have the image stored with such a path & naming convention that the code itself can figure out where to get the image (which is what paperclip does). Both ways are acceptable. NOTE that SASS is not truly dynamic, you can't pull paths from the database and make the sass change on-the-fly. I've run into a similar situation and the solution was to make the CSS point to a background-image that was in fact a route in the application. In our instance we were able to change the image displayed based on the subdomain or domain of the incoming user, but you could just as easily display that image based on a session cookie that gets set before the views are rendered.
While SASS is compiled, after it's been generated it is static. The syntax, and 'dynamic' nature of it are just to make writing CSS easier.
What about using something like S3(Paperclip) + a "css assets" table/model?
That way in an "admin" page you can pull all of the possible CSS assets, allow someone to select a new one or even upload a new image to s3. This means you wouldn't have to actually rewrite any code just have an admin portal where they can select possible images.
I've only just started learning ruby on rails and I would like to create an application that will allow me to add files to the database. Currently, I'm developing the rails application using the Aptana plugin for Eclipse and the application is using the default sqllite db.
I have tried generating a scaffold with the following parameters: documents title:string file:varbinary. Then I do a 'rake'->'db'->'migrate'. When I migrate to localhost/documents and click on 'New Document' the application fails and displays an error.
What I would like to do is click on 'New Document', have a field that will allow me to browse for a document on my local computer, select the document and add it to the db on the rails application.
Paperclip is more recommended than attachment_fu these days. It is really simple and easy to use with your active record model.
Is it a particular kind of file you want to add?
I just ask because if it's not data of a kind that benefits from being in a database ( textual data might be searchable, binary data is not ) then you are much better storing it in the filesystem and serving it up straight - especially for stuff like images or video - rather than inserting it into a database and having to go through your application every time a user requests it.
I'm not saying that there aren't any reasons you might want to have a file in the database, but I treat that as a last resort and in ten years of web programming I've not come across a case where it was necessary.
I would highly recommend the attachment_fu plugin as this lets you create models with attachments pretty nicely, Paperclip plugin is another good one also!
If you have trouble deciding which one to use, as far as i can remember, Paperclip makes it easier for multiple attachments, such as an Album has many Photos, and Attachment_fu is easier for single attachments such as a User has one display picture.
We do something like this on a site I'm managing. Instead of storing these files in a database, I'd agree with the other posters here and recommend you try something like Paperclip.
One caveat: if you want access control, make sure that paperclip doesn't save your files somewhere under /public, where anyone could possibly access them if they knew the URL. Deliver files to the user via send_file in your controller.