Save uploaded image to database on Flask

Question

I'm learning Python and using Flask to develop an application and one of the features is that a user can upload a profile picture and that image should be saved in the database.

I have a form where the user can upload a file, like this:

And then, in the application.py file I'm handling it like this:

@app.route("/myprofile", methods=["GET", "POST"])
@login_required
def myprofile():
    if request.method == "POST":
        
        db.execute("UPDATE users SET role = :role, picture = :picture, linkedin = :linkedin WHERE id = :user_id", role = request.form.get("role"), picture = request.files("picture"), linkedin = request.form.get("linkedin"), user_id = session["user_id"])

        return render_template("home.html")
    else:
        return render_template("myprofile.html")

This is returning an Internal Server Error. Does anyone have any idea why?

Thanks for your time!

Federico Ba&#249; · Accepted Answer

I don't see what error you get, however I want to share one of my previous answer regarding uploading an image into Flask. I prepared a mini app that is doing just what you asked for, using flask, flask_sqlalchemy (with sqlite3), html and Bootstrap.

You can find the full code here(I will update it with more secure file uploads) as the one given here is only a small part:

FULL CODE

Some Code from my Github Repo

Initiate the database, configs and Picture table for the databse

In class FileContent(db.Model):

data = file.read() It saves in database the Binary version of thefile -render_file = render_picture(data). It saves the decode version, so that you can you see it for render it in the webpages.

  # Built-in Imports
  import os
  from datetime import datetime
  from base64 import b64encode
  import base64
  from io import BytesIO #Converts data from Database into bytes

  # Flask
  from flask import Flask, render_template, request, flash, redirect, url_for, send_file # Converst bytes into a file for downloads

  # FLask SQLAlchemy, Database
  from flask_sqlalchemy import SQLAlchemy


  basedir = 'sqlite:///' + os.path.join(os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__)), 'data.sqlite')

  app = Flask(__name__)
  app.config['SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI'] = basedir
  app.config['SQLALCHEMY_TRACK_MODIFICATIONS'] = False
  app.config['SECRET_KEY'] = 'dev'
  db = SQLAlchemy(app)

  # Picture table. By default the table name is filecontent
  class FileContent(db.Model):

      """ 
      The first time the app runs you need to create the table. In Python
      terminal import db, Then run db.create_all()
      """
      """ ___tablename__ = 'yourchoice' """ # You can override the default table name

      id = db.Column(db.Integer,  primary_key=True)
      name = db.Column(db.String(128), nullable=False)
      data = db.Column(db.LargeBinary, nullable=False) #Actual data, needed for Download
      rendered_data = db.Column(db.Text, nullable=False)#Data to render the pic in browser
      text = db.Column(db.Text)
      location = db.Column(db.String(64))
      pic_date = db.Column(db.DateTime, nullable=False, default=datetime.utcnow)
      def __repr__(self):
          return f'Pic Name: {self.name} Data: {self.data} text: {self.text} created on: {self.pic_date} location: {self.location}'

Upload route, here is where the picture its sent to databse and processed with correct data

So here is what is going on in the app route:

def render_picture(data) --> Takes the bites raw version of the pic and return the decode version, so that it can be used to be display on the web.
data = file.read() : This is the raw data.This can be used for downloading the pic from database

render_file: decoded file so you can retrieve it and the render in the web page

#Render the pics, this Function converts the data from request.files['inputFile'] so that in can be displayed

def render_picture(data):

    render_pic = base64.b64encode(data).decode('ascii') 
    return render_pic


@app.route('/upload', methods=['POST'])
def upload():

   file = request.files['inputFile']
   data = file.read()
   render_file = render_picture(data)
   text = request.form['text']
   location = request.form['location']

   newFile = FileContent(name=file.filename, data=data, 
   rendered_data=render_file, text=text, location=location)
   db.session.add(newFile)
   db.session.commit() 
   flash(f'Pic {newFile.name} uploaded Text: {newFile.text} Location: 
   {newFile.location}')

   return render_template('upload.html')

INDEX Route

# Index It routes to index.html where the upload forms is 
@app.route('/index', methods=['GET', 'POST'])
@app.route('/')
def index():

    return render_template('index.html')

INDEX HTML with the Form