How to upload a Base 64 image to Rails paperclip

Question

I've tried a million different tutorials on the internet for how to upload a Base64 image from my iOS application to my rails app. It seems that no matter how I format the request it just won't get accepted.

Does anyone know definitively how to upload a Base64 image to paperclip?

I tried sending the param as JSON

{ "thumbnail_image": "base64_data..." }

I also tried appending the data url

{ "thumbnail_image": "data:image/jpeg;base64,alkwdjlaks..." }

I tried sending a JSON object with and without data url

{ "thumbnail_image": { "filename": "thumbnail.jpg", "file_data": "base64_data...", "content_type": "image/jpeg" } }

I consistently get these Paperclip::NoHandlerErrors and then it dumps a giant blob of data into my log.

Answer 1

Your Base64 string seems to be fine. You can always check that here

So the problem is probably on the Rails side. Check that the string you receive is exactly the same like the one you are sending.

With Paperclip 4.2.1 I managed to save Base64 GIF file that way:

Having:

class Thing
    has_attached_file :image

and POST attributes:

{
    "thumbnail_data:" "data:image/gif;base64,iVBORw0KGgo..."
}

All you have to do is to find proper adapter and specify original_filename. So for controller that would be:

def create
    image = Paperclip.io_adapters.for(params[:thumbnail_data]) 
    image.original_filename = "something.gif"
    Thing.create!(image: image)
    ...
end

AFAIK Paperclip made it easier to save base64 from version 3.5.0.

Hope that helps!