Create/generate image URL from base64 string

Question

I have a mobile based application that uses REST based service to upload images. The images are stored/retrieved in database as blob. Clearly so, now we have space and performance overheads, which is not working.

What needs to be implemented now, is a file system for image hosting. My web application is hosted on Google app engine , creating a file system and storing the files url in database, would require me to purchase extra storage space.

I have heard about free image hosting services online? Having never used any of them before, I need to know about any popular/reliable image sharing services online? Also, the ones that expose their services to my web application, and return a generated url in response. Which would ofcourse be stored in my database, in place of the string . Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

So this is not a development question, at least not fully.

I suggest checking out free Tier AWS, or just ponying up a few bucks a month for hosting at Digital Ocean or something like that.

Also, if you store them as a url, you can use:

UIImage *image = [UIImage imageWithData:[NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:[NSURL URLWithString:MyURL]]];