I'm working on this project and ran into some complications using AWS S3 to host images. So I pivoted and decided to store the image as a Blob and let Javascript do the work of transforming the file into and out of the Blob, so I could then use AJAX and the API to store it in our DB. While this might be less than ideal, I'm still learning Javascript and hadn't worked with blobs a lot so I figured why not, time to learn.
My issue is that when I try to use a DataURI to show the image on the page it comes out as a string and not a DataURI, and therefore loads as a broken image. I haven't worked in ajax yet because I thought it better to take the image, turn it into an ascii string, put it in a blob, then get it back out before involving the API/server. Here is my html:
{% extends 'mp_app/base.html' %}
{% load staticfiles %}
{% block content %}
<div id="page-wrapper">
<pre id="fileDisplayArea"></pre>
<form id="picForm" method='post'>
{% csrf_token %}
<input type="file" id='imgFile' name="pic" accept="image/*">
<input type="submit" id='submitBtn'>
<input type="submit" id="showBtn">
</form>
<div id="imageDisplay"></div>
</div>
{% endblock %}
{% block javascript %}
<script
src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.2.1.min.js"
integrity="sha256-hwg4gsxgFZhOsEEamdOYGBf13FyQuiTwlAQgxVSNgt4="
crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="{% static 'js/blob.js' %}"></script>
{% endblock %}
and my Javascript
//js file to turn an image into a blob, then store the blob in our API.
// next: retrive the blob and put it on the page
function textToImg(text) {
//get ascii string into binary then into an array then into a blob.
//had some strange issues using ArrayBuffer()
var file = new
Array(atob(document.getElementById('fileDisplayArea').innerText));
file = new Blob(file, {type:'image/*'});
let displayArea = document.getElementById('imageDisplay')
//currently doesn't seem to be loading as a DataURL. It's type is string and
//shows up as a broken image.
var reader = new FileReader();
reader.onload = function(event) {
var content = event.target.result;
img = new Image();
img.src = content;
displayArea.append(img)
console.log(img);
}
reader.onerror = function(event) {
console.error('error, file could not be read: ' +
event.target.error.code);;
}
reader.readAsDataURL(file);
// TODO get data via ajax to our DB our restful API
}
//turns an image into a blob
function imgToText() {
// get file elem and get image
let file = document.getElementById('imgFile');
let img = document.getElementById('imgFile').files[0];
let displayArea = document.getElementById('fileDisplayArea');
//open a file reader and read in file, then turn it from binary to ascii
var reader = new FileReader();
reader.onload = function(event) {
let contents = event.target.result;
//turn to ascii string
let asciiContents = btoa(contents);
//add ascii string to form
let form = {
'file': asciiContents,
}
displayArea.append(form.file);
};
reader.onerror = function(event) {
console.error('error, file could not be read');
}
//read file as a bit string
reader.readAsBinaryString(img);
// TODO send data via ajax to our DB our restful API
};
//add click event so that image is processed upon submit
$('#submitBtn').click(function(event) {
event.preventDefault();
imgToText();
});
$('#showBtn').click(function(event) {
event.preventDefault();
textToImg();
})
The img src reads as the blob string makes me think the something is wrong with the DataURI, perhaps it isn't getting the file in the proper format. I couldn't post a screen shot because I need a better reputation. Sorry this is so verbose but I wanted to try and make a quality post. Thank you!
