Encode ImageField in base64 and store it in DB instead of path of the image

Question

settings.py

STATIC_URL = '/static/'
STATICFILES_DIRS= [str(BASE_DIR.joinpath('static'))]
STATIC_ROOT = BASE_DIR.joinpath('staticfiles')
MEDIA_URL = '/media/'
MEDIA_ROOT = str(BASE_DIR.joinpath('media'))

config/urls.py

urlpatterns = [
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
    path('', include('proj.urls')),
] += static(settings.MEDIA_URL, document_root=settings.MEDIA_ROOT)

models.py

class Book(models.Model):
    image = models.ImageField(upload_to='upload/', blank=True, default=None, null=True)

views.py

class BookCreateView(CreateView):
    model = Book
    template_name = "book_new.html"
    fields = "__all__"

book_new.html

{% extends 'base.html' %}

{% block content %}
    <h1>New Book</h1>
    <form action="" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">{% csrf_token %}
        {{ form.as_p }}
        <input type="submit" value="Save">
    </form>
{% endblock content %}

proj/urls.py

urlpatterns = [
    path("", home_view, name="home"),
    path("book/new/", BookCreateView.as_view(), name="book_new"),
]

I have written this code which will upload the image to /media/upload/ and the path of the file will be saved on the database like upload/image_file.png . I don't want to store the file path in the database, I want to read the file, convert it to base64 and store the encoded string in the database. How can I do that? I've searched a lot and tried to figure this out on my own as I usually do, but this one's a little hard for me, here's what I've read so far:

• Binary image display in Django template
• Save base64 image in django file field
• Saving a decoded temporary image to Django Imagefield
• a StringIO like class, that extends django.core.files.File
• Django: using base64 to store images in the DB
• Encode Base64 Django ImageField Stream
• https://medium.com/@omaraamir19966/image-handling-with-django-de4f85a0e907
• https://idiomaticprogrammers.com/post/how-to-save-base64-encoded-image-to-django-imagefield/
• https://stackabuse.com/encoding-and-decoding-base64-strings-in-python/

Answer 1

ImageField , as far as the database is concerned, is a simple VARCHAR(100). that means you can only store up to 100 characters in it. Most of the "magic" of ImageField is that it provides an interface to store the file in the MEDIA_ROOT with particular paths and provides tools to retrieve it again. It also provides tools to store height and width of the image.

If you really want to store binary files in the database, you'll have to create your own system using a BinaryField or something like that. Remember that you'll likely also need to store some meta information such as filename or mimetype (since the raw binary won't have that).

In most cases, storing binary files in a database is usually not the best solution as it'll be slower than just fetching files from a file system. If you want the files to be accessible between machines, then you'd be better with a network mount or something like AWS S3.