Uploading images with Mongoose, Express and AngularJS

Question

I know this has been asked many times before, and I have read almost all I could find about the subject, namely:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/25022437/1031184

Uploading images using Node.js, Express, and Mongoose

Those are the best I have found so far. My problem is tho that they still aren't very clear, there is very little documentation online at all about this and the discussion seems aimed at people who are much more advanced than I am.

So with that I would really love it if someone could please walk me though how to upload images using Mongoose, Express & AngularJS. I am actually using the MEAN fullstack. (this generator to be precise – https://github.com/DaftMonk/generator-angular-fullstack)

AddController:

'use strict';

angular.module('lumicaApp')
  .controller('ProjectAddCtrl', ['$scope', '$location', '$log', 'projectsModel', 'users', 'types', function ($scope, $location, $log, projectsModel, users, types) {
    $scope.dismiss = function () {
      $scope.$dismiss();
    };

        $scope.users = users;
        $scope.types = types;

    $scope.project = {
            name: null,
            type: null,
            images: {
                thumbnail: null // I want to add the uploaded images _id here to reference with mongoose populate.
            },
            users: null
        };

        $scope.save = function () {
            $log.info($scope.project);
            projectsModel.post($scope.project).then(function (project) {
        $scope.$dismiss();
            });
        }

  }]);

I want to add the Images ID reference to project.images.thumbnail but I want to store all the information inside an Image Object using the following Schema:

'use strict';

    var mongoose = require('mongoose'),
        Schema = mongoose.Schema;

    var ImageSchema = new Schema({
      fileName: String,
      url: String,
      contentType: String,
      size: String,
      dimensions: String
    });

    module.exports = mongoose.model('Image', ImageSchema);

I have also added the following https://github.com/nervgh/angular-file-upload to my bower packages.

As I say I just can't figure out how to tie it all together. And I'm not even sure if what I am trying to do is the correct way either.

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UPDATE:

Here is what I now have, I have added some comments detailing how I would like it to work, unfortunately I still haven't managed to get this working, I can't even get the image to start uploading, never mind uploading to S3. Sorry to be a pain but I am just finding this particularly confusing, which surprises me.

client/app/people/add/add.controller.js

'use strict';

angular.module('lumicaApp')
    .controller('AddPersonCtrl', ['$scope', '$http', '$location', '$window', '$log', 'Auth', 'FileUploader', 'projects', 'usersModel', function ($scope, $http, $location, $window, $log, Auth, FileUploader, projects, usersModel) {
        $scope.dismiss = function () {
            $scope.$dismiss();
        };

        $scope.newResource = {};

        // Upload Profile Image
        $scope.onUploadSelect = function($files) {
            $scope.newResource.newUploadName = $files[0].name;

            $http
                .post('/api/uploads', {
                    uploadName: newResource.newUploadName,
                    upload: newResource.newUpload
                })
                .success(function(data) {
                    newResource.upload = data; // To be saved later
                });
        };

        $log.info($scope.newResource);

        //Get Projects List
        $scope.projects = projects;

        //Register New User
        $scope.user = {};
        $scope.errors = {};


        $scope.register = function(form) {
            $scope.submitted = true;

            if(form.$valid) {
                Auth.createUser({
                    firstName: $scope.user.firstName,
                    lastName: $scope.user.lastName,
                    username: $scope.user.username,
                    profileImage: $scope.user.profileImage, // I want to add the _id reference for the image here to I can populate it with 'ImageSchema' using mongoose to get the image details(Name, URL, FileSize, ContentType, ETC)
                    assigned: {
                        teams: null,
                        projects: $scope.user.assigned.projects
                    },
                    email: $scope.user.email,
                    password: $scope.user.password
                })
                    .then( function() {
                        // Account created, redirect to home
                        //$location.path('/');
                        $scope.$dismiss();
                    })
                    .catch( function(err) {
                        err = err.data;
                        $scope.errors = {};

                        // Update validity of form fields that match the mongoose errors
                        angular.forEach(err.errors, function(error, field) {
                            form[field].$setValidity('mongoose', false);
                            $scope.errors[field] = error.message;
                        });
                    });
            }
        };

        $scope.loginOauth = function(provider) {
            $window.location.href = '/auth/' + provider;
        };

    }]);

server/api/image/image.model.js I would like to store all image information here and use this to populate profileImage in people controller.

'use strict';

    var mongoose = require('mongoose'),
        Schema = mongoose.Schema;

    var ImageSchema = new Schema({
      fileName: String,
      url: String, // Should store the URL of image on S3.
      contentType: String,
      size: String,
      dimensions: String
    });

    module.exports = mongoose.model('Image', ImageSchema);

client/app/people/add/add.jade

.modal-header
    h3.modal-title Add {{ title }}
.modal-body
    form(id="add-user" name='form', ng-submit='register(form)', novalidate='')
        .form-group(ng-class='{ "has-success": form.firstName.$valid && submitted,\
        "has-error": form.firstName.$invalid && submitted }')
            label First Name
            input.form-control(type='text', name='firstName', ng-model='user.firstName', required='')
            p.help-block(ng-show='form.firstName.$error.required && submitted')
                | First name is required

        .form-group(ng-class='{ "has-success": form.lastName.$valid && submitted,\
        "has-error": form.lastName.$invalid && submitted }')
            label Last Name
            input.form-control(type='text', name='lastName', ng-model='user.lastName', required='')
            p.help-block(ng-show='form.lastName.$error.required && submitted')
                | Last name is required

        .form-group(ng-class='{ "has-success": form.username.$valid && submitted,\
        "has-error": form.username.$invalid && submitted }')
            label Username
            input.form-control(type='text', name='username', ng-model='user.username', required='')
            p.help-block(ng-show='form.username.$error.required && submitted')
                | Last name is required

        // Upload Profile Picture Here
        .form-group
            label Profile Image
            input(type="file" ng-file-select="onUploadSelect($files)" ng-model="newResource.newUpload")

        .form-group(ng-class='{ "has-success": form.email.$valid && submitted,\
        "has-error": form.email.$invalid && submitted }')
            label Email
            input.form-control(type='email', name='email', ng-model='user.email', required='', mongoose-error='')
            p.help-block(ng-show='form.email.$error.email && submitted')
                | Doesn't look like a valid email.
            p.help-block(ng-show='form.email.$error.required && submitted')
                | What's your email address?
            p.help-block(ng-show='form.email.$error.mongoose')
                | {{ errors.email }}

        .form-group(ng-class='{ "has-success": form.password.$valid && submitted,\
        "has-error": form.password.$invalid && submitted }')
            label Password
            input.form-control(type='password', name='password', ng-model='user.password', ng-minlength='3', required='', mongoose-error='')
            p.help-block(ng-show='(form.password.$error.minlength || form.password.$error.required) && submitted')
                | Password must be at least 3 characters.
            p.help-block(ng-show='form.password.$error.mongoose')
                | {{ errors.password }}

        .form-group
            label Assign Project(s)
            br
            select(multiple ng-options="project._id as project.name for project in projects" ng-model="user.assigned.projects")
        button.btn.btn-primary(ng-submit='register(form)') Save

    pre(ng-bind="user | json")
.modal-footer
    button.btn.btn-primary(type="submit" form="add-user") Save
    button.btn.btn-warning(ng-click='dismiss()') Cancel

server/api/upload/index.js

'use strict';

var express = require('express');
var controller = require('./upload.controller');

var router = express.Router();

//router.get('/', controller.index);
//router.get('/:id', controller.show);
router.post('/', controller.create);
//router.put('/:id', controller.update);
//router.patch('/:id', controller.update);
//router.delete('/:id', controller.destroy);

module.exports = router;

server/api/upload/upload.controller.js

'use strict';

var _ = require('lodash');
//var Upload = require('./upload.model');
var aws = require('aws-sdk');
var config = require('../../config/environment');
var randomString = require('../../components/randomString');

// Creates a new upload in the DB.
exports.create = function(req, res) {
    var s3 = new aws.S3();
    var folder = randomString.generate(20); // I guess I do this because when the user downloads the file it will have the original file name.
    var matches = req.body.upload.match(/data:([A-Za-z-+\/].+);base64,(.+)/);

    if (matches === null || matches.length !== 3) {
        return handleError(res, 'Invalid input string');
    }

    var uploadBody = new Buffer(matches[2], 'base64');

    var params = {
        Bucket: config.aws.bucketName,
        Key: folder + '/' + req.body.uploadName,
        Body: uploadBody,
        ACL:'public-read'
    };

    s3.putObject(params, function(err, data) {
        if (err)
            console.log(err)
        else {
            console.log("Successfully uploaded data to my-uploads/" + folder + '/' + req.body.uploadName);
            return res.json({
                name: req.body.uploadName,
                bucket: config.aws.bucketName,
                key: folder
            });
        }
    });
};

function handleError(res, err) {
    return res.send(500, err);
}

server/config/environment/development.js

aws: {
        key: 'XXXXXXXXXXXX',
        secret: 'XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX',
        region: 'sydney',
        bucketName: 'my-uploads'
    }

Answer 1

All of this code is straight out of a project that depends heavily on this for large file uploads and images. Definitely checkout https://github.com/nervgh/angular-file-upload

In my view somewhere:

<div class="form-group">
  <label>File Upload</label>
  <input type="file" ng-file-select="onUploadSelect($files)" ng-model="newResource.newUpload">
</div>

Using the module angularFileUpload I then have in my controller:

$scope.onUploadSelect = function($files) {
  $scope.newResource.newUploadName = $files[0].name;
};

https://github.com/nervgh/angular-file-upload

When the user clicks upload this gets executed where I send the file to be uploaded:

$http
  .post('/api/uploads', {
    uploadName: newResource.newUploadName,
    upload: newResource.newUpload
  })
  .success(function(data) {
    newResource.upload = data; // To be saved later
  });

This request is sent to a controller that looks something like this:

'use strict';

var _ = require('lodash');
var aws = require('aws-sdk');
var config = require('../../config/environment');
var randomString = require('../../components/randomString');

// Creates a new upload in the DB.
exports.create = function(req, res) {
  var s3 = new aws.S3();
  var folder = randomString.generate(20); // I guess I do this because when the user downloads the file it will have the original file name.
  var matches = req.body.upload.match(/data:([A-Za-z-+\/].+);base64,(.+)/);

  if (matches === null || matches.length !== 3) {
    return handleError(res, 'Invalid input string');
  }

  var uploadBody = new Buffer(matches[2], 'base64');

  var params = {
    Bucket: config.aws.bucketName,
    Key: folder + '/' + req.body.uploadName,
    Body: uploadBody,
    ACL:'public-read'
  };

  s3.putObject(params, function(err, data) {
    if (err)
      console.log(err)
    else {
      console.log("Successfully uploaded data to csk3-uploads/" + folder + '/' + req.body.uploadName);
      return res.json({
        name: req.body.uploadName,
        bucket: config.aws.bucketName,
        key: folder
      });
    }
   });
};

function handleError(res, err) {
  return res.send(500, err);
}

server/components/randomString/index.js

'use strict';

module.exports.generate = function(textLength) {
  textLength = textLength || 10;
  var text = '';
  var possible = 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789';

  for(var i = 0; i < textLength; i++) {
    text += possible.charAt(Math.floor(Math.random() * possible.length));
  }

  return text;
};

server/config/environment/development.js

server/api/upload/upload.controller.js

Answer 2

This is the way i used MEAN.JS for file upload.

Model

var UserSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
name:{type:String,required:true},
photo:Buffer  // Image
});

Server Controller

var userPicture = function(req,res){             // Stores Picture for a user matching the ID.
user.findById(req.param('id'), function (err, user) {
    console.log(req.files) // File from Client
    if(req.files.file){   // If the Image exists
        var fs = require('node-fs');
        fs.readFile(req.files.file.path, function (dataErr, data) {
            if(data) {
                user.photo ='';
                user.photo = data;  // Assigns the image to the path.
                user.save(function (saveerr, saveuser) {
                    if (saveerr) {
                        throw saveerr;
                    }
                    res.json(HttpStatus.OK, saveuser);                        
                });
            }
        });
        return
    }
    res.json(HttpStatus.BAD_REQUEST,{error:"Error in file upload"});
});
};

Client Controller

$scope.saveuserImage =  function(){
    $scope.upload = $upload.upload({  // Using $upload
        url: '/user/'+$stateParams.id+'/userImage',  // Direct Server Call.
        method:'put',
        data:'',  // Where the image is going to be set.
        file: $scope.file
    }).progress(function (evt) {})
        .success(function () {
            var logo = new FileReader();  // FileReader.

            $scope.onAttachmentSelect = function(file){
                logo.onload = function (e) {
                    $scope.image = e.target.result;  // Assigns the image on the $scope variable.
                    $scope.logoName = file[0].name; // Assigns the file name.
                    $scope.$apply();
                };
                logo.readAsDataURL(file[0]);
                $scope.file = file[0];
                $scope.getFileData = file[0].name
            };
            location.reload();
            $scope.file = "";
            $scope.hideUpload = 'true'
        });
    $scope.getFileData = '';
 //        location.reload()
};

Html

The ng-file-select is used to get the file from the client.

This works fine for me. Hope this helps.

Note: I have used HTML tag instead of jade. Suitable changes applicable while using jade.