
- #Upload image to google cloud storage how to#
- #Upload image to google cloud storage update#
- #Upload image to google cloud storage code#

They could be referenced by your site or web app or by anyone.

The frontend uses a form to collect the data to store in the graphQL backend database. This guarantees each file will have a unique name stored in the database to link to the data for that image. Our graphQL backend creates a UUID to be used as a name for each file. In this scheme we want to ensure that there are no naming collisions with other files. It is important to understand that within the expiration time multiple uploads could be made with this URL overwriting each other. It specifies the name of the file that will be stored in the bucket. This name does not have to correspond to the name of the file chosen by the user on their local system. The filename specified is included in the URL. The URL returned from this function is signed using a key from your Google account so it requires no extra authentication to upload to the storage bucket. The second method used here is to request the signed URL from the GCS storage API.
#Upload image to google cloud storage code#
You can generate them yourself in your code using a Key connected to your GCS account. There are two ways to generate these signed URLs. Google also provides the option for signed URLs that allow anyone with the URL to upload a file to a cloud storage bucket for a specified period of time. Each of these adds friction for the user or requires you to proxy images through the backend to the cloud storage bucket. You can get images into GCS through their CLI, web console, or by having users authenticate to google with the correct permissions. I chose Google because they are relatively cheap, with good documentation, and has many other supporting services that can be combined with the storage. On top of the major players, there are dozens of saas services that add a convenient layer of on top for image upload, transform, and CDN. Google Cloud Storage Signed URLsĮvery cloud provider has their own version of cloud storage. Since the image is much larger than the other data going to the database most of the bandwidth of the transaction never hits your backend. This allows your frontend to upload directly to Google Cloud Storage securely without having to authenticate.
#Upload image to google cloud storage update#
When the user submits the form the image they selected is uploaded directly to Google Cloud Storage using the signed URL and the graphQL mutation is sent to the backend to update the database. The URL is requested as soon as a user opens the form to enter a new item in the database.

The solution is to request a signed URL from Google with your backend server and pass that signed URL to your frontend.
#Upload image to google cloud storage how to#
I will show how to use signed URLs to allow users to upload images directly to Google Cloud Storage without having to proxy them through the backend server. Storing images in a database is not ideal and uploading images through graphQL is problematic. It requires users to upload images of equipment for a personal inventory system. I am building a react web app with GatsbyJS connected to a graphQL backend API. There are many ways to store user images from a website or web app. Using signed URLs with Google Cloud Storage to simplify storing user assets.
