Adding a picture to the MEAN.JS sample with Angular-file-upload

Question

I am using MEAN.JS (https://github.com/meanjs/mean) and angular-file-upload (https://github.com/danialfarid/angular-file-upload).

The "Article" sample provided by MEAN.JS contains two fields named "title" and "content". I want to modify that and add a "picture" field allowing a user to upload a picture.

I understand that I have to modify 3 files in MEAN.JS:

~myproject/app/models/article.server.model.js 
~myproject/public/modules/articles/controllers/articles.client.controller.js
~myproject/public/modules/articles/views/create-article.client.view.html

However, I can not modify them successfully.

Answer 1

My solution uses angular-file-upload on the client and uses connect-multiparty to handle the file upload.

The images are stored directly in the database which limits their size. I have not included the required code to check the image size.

set up

 bower install ng-file-upload --save
 bower install ng-file-upload-shim --save 

 npm i connect-multiparty
 npm update

all.js add angular-file-upload scripts

            ...
            'public/lib/ng-file-upload/FileAPI.min.js', 
            'public/lib/ng-file-upload/angular-file-upload-shim.min.js',
            'public/lib/angular/angular.js', 
            'public/lib/ng-file-upload/angular-file-upload.min.js',
            ...

config.js Inject angular-file-upload dependency

...
var applicationModuleVendorDependencies = ['ngResource', 'ngAnimate', 'ui.router', 'ui.bootstrap', 'ui.utils', 'angularFileUpload'];
...

article.client.controller.js Use angular-file-upload dependency

angular.module('articles').controller('ArticlesController', ['$scope', '$timeout',  '$upload', '$stateParams', '$location', 'Authentication', 'Articles',
function($scope, $timeout, $upload, $stateParams, $location, Authentication, Articles) {
    $scope.fileReaderSupported = window.FileReader !== null;



    // Create new Article
            $scope.create = function(picFile) {
          console.log('create');
                      console.log(picFile);
        var article = new Articles({
            title: this.title,
            content: this.content,
            image: null
        });

         console.log(article);
         $upload.upload({
            url: '/articleupload', 
            method: 'POST', 
            headers: {'Content-Type': 'multipart/form-data'},
            fields: {article: article},
            file: picFile,               
        }).success(function (response, status) {
              $location.path('articles/' + response._id);

            $scope.title = '';
            $scope.content = '';
        }).error(function (err) {
                $scope.error = err.data.message;
        });

    };

    $scope.doTimeout = function(file) {
         console.log('do timeout');
        $timeout( function() {
                var fileReader = new FileReader();
                fileReader.readAsDataURL(file);
             console.log('read');
                fileReader.onload = function(e) {
                    $timeout(function() {
                        file.dataUrl = e.target.result;
                         console.log('set url');
                    });
                };
            });
    };


    $scope.generateThumb = function(file) {
        console.log('generate Thumb');
    if (file) {
        console.log('not null');
         console.log(file);
        if ($scope.fileReaderSupported && file.type.indexOf('image') > -1) {
            $scope.doTimeout(file);
          }
      }
   };
}

create-article.client.view.html update the create view to handle file selection and upload

<section data-ng-controller="ArticlesController">
<div class="page-header">
    <h1>New Article</h1>
</div>
<div class="col-md-12">
    <form name="articleForm" class="form-horizontal" data-ng-submit="create(picFile)" novalidate>
        <fieldset>
            <div class="form-group" ng-class="{ 'has-error':   articleForm.title.$dirty && articleForm.title.$invalid }">
                <label class="control-label" for="title">Title</label>
                <div class="controls">
                    <input name="title" type="text" data-ng-model="title" id="title" class="form-control" placeholder="Title" required>
                </div>
            </div>
            <div class="form-group">
                <label class="control-label" for="content">Content</label>
                <div class="controls">
                    <textarea name="content" data-ng-model="content" id="content" class="form-control" cols="30" rows="10" placeholder="Content"></textarea>
                </div>
            </div>
            <div class="form-group">
                <label class="control-label" for="articleimage">Article Picture</label>
                <div class="controls">
                     <input id="articleimage" type="file" ng-file-select="" ng-model="picFile" name="file" accept="image/*" ng-file-change="generateThumb(picFile[0], $files)" required="">
                    <br/>
                    <img ng-show="picFile[0].dataUrl != null" ng-src="{{picFile[0].dataUrl}}" class="img-thumbnail" height="50" width="100">
                    <span class="progress" ng-show="picFile[0].progress >= 0">      
                        <div style="width:{{picFile[0].progress}}%" ng-bind="picFile[0].progress + '%'" class="ng-binding"></div>
                    </span> 
                    <span ng-show="picFile[0].result">Upload Successful</span>
                </div>
            </div>
            <div class="form-group">
                <input type="submit" class="btn btn-default" ng-disabled="!articleForm.$valid" ng-click="uploadPic(picFile)">
            </div> 
            <div data-ng-show="error" class="text-danger">
                <strong data-ng-bind="error"></strong>
            </div>
        </fieldset>
    </form>
</div>
</section>

view-article.client.view.html update list view to include image

<img ng-src="data:image/jpeg;base64,{{article.image}}" id="photo-id" width="200" height="200"/>

list-articles.client.view.html update view to include imgae

<img ng-src="data:image/jpeg;base64,{{article.image}}" id="photo-id" width="40" height="40"/>

article.server.model.js Add image to database model

...
image: {
    type: String,
    default: ''
},
...

article.server.routes.js Add new route for upload use connect-multiparty

...
multiparty = require('connect-multiparty'),
multipartyMiddleware = multiparty(),
...
app.route('/articleupload')
    .post(users.requiresLogin, multipartyMiddleware, articles.createWithUpload);
...

article.server.controller.js Handle new route for upload require fs

...
fs = require('fs'),
...
/**
 * Create a article with Upload
 */
exports.createWithUpload = function(req, res) {
 var file = req.files.file;
 console.log(file.name);
 console.log(file.type);
 console.log(file.path);
 console.log(req.body.article);

var art = JSON.parse(req.body.article);
var article = new Article(art);
article.user = req.user;

fs.readFile(file.path, function (err,original_data) {
 if (err) {
      return res.status(400).send({
            message: errorHandler.getErrorMessage(err)
        });
  } 
    // save image in db as base64 encoded - this limits the image size
    // to there should be size checks here and in client
  var base64Image = original_data.toString('base64');
  fs.unlink(file.path, function (err) {
      if (err)
      { 
          console.log('failed to delete ' + file.path);
      }
      else{
        console.log('successfully deleted ' + file.path);
      }
  });
  article.image = base64Image;

  article.save(function(err) {
    if (err) {
        return res.status(400).send({
            message: errorHandler.getErrorMessage(err)
        });
    } else {
        res.json(article);
    }
  });
});
};
...

Answer 2

Thanks Charlie Tupman for this last solution which works very well.

I simply add the dependencies :

...
multiparty = require('multiparty'),
uuid = require('uuid'),
...

before the exports function and changed two lines to improve the behavior:

...
var destPath = './public/uploads/' + fileName;

article.image = '/uploads/' + fileName;
...

which resolve in:

exports.createWithUpload = function(req, res) {

    var form = new multiparty.Form();
    form.parse(req, function(err, fields, files) {

        var file = req.files.file;
        console.log(file.name);
        console.log(file.type);
        console.log(file.path);
        console.log(req.body.article);

        var art = JSON.parse(req.body.article);
        var article = new Article(art);
        article.user = req.user;
        var tmpPath = file.path;
        var extIndex = tmpPath.lastIndexOf('.');
        var extension = (extIndex < 0) ? '' : tmpPath.substr(extIndex);
        var fileName = uuid.v4() + extension;
        var destPath = './public/uploads/' + fileName;

        article.image = '/uploads/' + fileName;

        var is = fs.createReadStream(tmpPath);
        var os = fs.createWriteStream(destPath);

        if(is.pipe(os)) {
            fs.unlink(tmpPath, function (err) { //To unlink the file from temp path after copy
                if (err) {
                    console.log(err);
                }
            });
            article.save(function(err) {
                if (err) {
                    return res.status(400).send({
                        message: errorHandler.getErrorMessage(err)
                    });
                } else {
                    res.jsonp(article);
                }
            });
        } else
            return res.json('File not uploaded');
    });

};

Answer 3

My working solution in MEAN.js

server model:

image:{ 
    type: String, 
    default: ''
},

server controller:

var item = new Item(JSON.parse(req.body.item));
item.user = req.user;
if(req.files.file)
    item.image=req.files.file.name;
else
    item.image='default.jpg';

//item.image=
item.save(function(err) {
    if (err) {
        return res.status(400).send({
            message: errorHandler.getErrorMessage(err)
        });
    } else {
        res.jsonp(item);
    }
});

server route: (requires multer: "npm install multer --save")

var multer  = require('multer');
app.use(multer({ dest: './public/uploads/'}));

frontend angular controller:

    $scope.image='';

    $scope.uploadImage = function(e){
        console.log(e.target.files[0]);
        $scope.image=e.target.files[0];

    };



    // Create new Item
    $scope.create = function() {
        // Create new Item object
        var item = new Items ({
            name: this.name,
            bought: this.bought,
            number: this.number,
            description: this.description,
            warranty: this.warranty,
            notes: this.notes


        });

        ItemsService.saveItem(item,$scope.image);

    };

service which send's the request:

.factory('ItemsService', ['$http','$rootScope', function($http, $rootScope) 
{
    var service={};

    service.saveItem = function(item, image)
    {

        var fd = new FormData();
        fd.append('file', image);
        fd.append('item', JSON.stringify(item));
        $http.post('items/', fd, {
            transformRequest: angular.identity,
            headers: {'Content-Type': undefined}
        })
        .success(function(){
            console.log('success add new item');
        })
        .error(function(e){
            console.log('error add new item', e);
        });


    };

    return service;

}

]);

html view:

           <div class="form-group">
                <label class="control-label" for="name">Image</label>
                <div class="controls">
                    <input type="file"  data-ng-model="image" id="image" my-file-upload="uploadImage" required>
                     {{selectedFile.name}}
                </div>
            </div>