How to upload file using swagger-express-mw and express?

Question

I want to upload multipart form-data using express framework. I'm using swagger-node with express for my APIs. Now, I've written the following in swagger YAML file to upload file:

  /picture/students:
    # binds a127 app logic to a route
    x-swagger-router-controller: bus_api
    post:
      description: Upload a picture
      # used as the method name of the controller
      operationId: uploadStudentPic
      consumes:
        - multipart/form-data
      parameters:
       - in: formData
         name: imageFile
         type: file
         description: The file to upload.
         required: true
      responses:
        "200":
          description: OK
          schema:
            # a pointer to a definition
            $ref: "#/definitions/SuccessResponseStr"

But now I don't know how to upload image using it. Is there any inbuilt facility to upload image in swagger?

Answer 1

Although this being an old question here is how you can do it. We are using the express-fileupload npm module here which makes our life easier. And below is a simple snippet to upload and save the file to our server, the swagger yaml stays the same.

 //import the module
 const fileUpload = require('express-fileupload');

 // Add this in express setup 
 app.use(fileUpload());

 // Your controller function, where you will get the file and store it as needed
 function uploadStudentPic(req: any, res: any, next: any) {

   var startup_image = req.files.imageFile;
   var fileName = startup_image.name;

   startup_image.mv(__dirname + '/images/' + fileName, function (err: any) {
     if (err) {
       res.status(500).send(err);
     }
     res.json({
       "message": "File Uploaded"
     });
   });
 }

note: The above code is for a single & simple use case, you may need to do some more configurations based on your requirements. If you simply want to upload a file and store it on the server this should work.

---

An important thing to note here that swagger does not have to know which module we are using, OR nor does swagger provide for an inbuilt facility to upload an image.

What we are doing in declaring our API as in the question, more specifically these line ...

  parameters:
   - in: formData
     name: imageFile
     type: file
     description: The file to upload.
     required: true

... is specifying that the above POST API expects a parameter named imageFile which should be a file and is required by this API to function. And if the swagger validator middleware is enabled in your express & swagger-node configuration, our API will validate the incoming request and respond with a 400 Bad Request error in case the file is not uploaded.

If you want a sample configuration of swagger-node, swagger-tools with swagger express middleware, you can find some details in this answer posted by me ( sorry for publicizing :P )