Adding Images To MySQL

Victor Subervi victorsubervi at gmail.com
Mon Apr 7 14:17:26 EDT 2008


in line...

On 4/5/08, Gabriel Genellina <gagsl-py2 at yahoo.com.ar> wrote:
>
> En Sat, 05 Apr 2008 11:32:00 -0300, Victor Subervi
> <victorsubervi at gmail.com> escribió:
>
> >> * *- You say Content-Type: image/jpeg but you emit HTML code. You're
> >> lucky
> > if you see any
> >
> >> * *text at all.
> >
> > Well, I tried Content-Type: text/html and that threw an HTTP 500 Error.
>
> If your script raised any exception, that's the expected code. (500 =
> internal error = your code has errors). But it's not very useful for
> debugging; using cgitb or wrapping the code in try/except as has already
> been suggested, lets you see the exception and traceback.


Yes, and I have employed your suggestion of cgtib, and I sent you personally
under separate cover the errors, since I forgot to include them in this
post.

>> * *- HTTP 200 is not an error, it means the request was successful.
> >
> > When it doesn´t execute the code, how can it be called successful? If it
> > doesn´t execute the code, how can you say it´s not an error? What is it,
> > then?
>
> Well, your web server thinks all went ok... BTW, you did't provide details
> about it, I *guess* you're using CGI because of the print "Content-Type"
> line.


Yes, that is correct...

>> * *- As a general advice, try to isolate the problems. Test the database
> > stuff alone, in a local
> >> * *application. Test the cgi script alone, without database
> interaction.
> > Test the database stuff in
> >> * *the web server (better if you have a shell account). Merge all and
> >> test
> > again.
> >
> > Very good advice. Please help me understand how to do that.
> >
> > This is what I have done. I have tried these:
> >
> > sql = "'insert into products (" + col_names + ") values (" + val + ")',
> > (" +
> > col_names + ")"
> >
> > cursor.execute(sql)
> >
> > and
> >
> > sql = "'insert into products (" + col_names + ") values (" + val + ")'"
> >
> > cursor.execute(sql, (col_names,))
> >
> > Neither work.
>
> You got a syntax error, I guess. What's that ' at the start?
> I'll try to explain it from the ground up. This would be a valid SQL
> statement::
>
>     insert into PRODUCTS (PRODID, NAME, DESCRIPTION)
>     values (123, 'Easter egg 80g', 'A longer description');
>
> In Python, you need the SQL text inside a string::
>
>     sql = "insert into PRODUCTS (PRODID, NAME, DESCRIPTION) " \
>           "values (123, 'Easter egg 80g', 'A longer description');"
>
> and you can execute it with::
>
>     cursor.execute(sql)
>
> That would be OK when you create the database for the first time. Later
> your boss comes in and says: "We've got bigger eggs! Code 124, 150g each.
> We need them in the database". You write an sql statement similar to
> above. Some days later, they decide to sell bubble gum. Forty-two
> different sizes and flavors and brands. You don't want to write all that
> sql statements by hand. Your first thought is to build the sql text by
> pieces::
>
>     sql = "insert into PRODUCTS (PRODID, NAME, DESCRIPTION) " \
>           "values ("+str(prodid)+", '"+prodname+"', '"+description+"');"
>
> But then you remember to have read something about sql injection and you
> don't like that mess of " + ) ' ( anyway. After reading some articles
> about DBAPI 2, PEP 249, the MySQLdb module, you write this::
>
>     sql = "insert into PRODUCTS (PRODID, NAME, DESCRIPTION) " \
>           "values (%s,%s,%s);"
>     cursor.execute(sql, (prodid, prodname, description))
>
> and it works fine.
>
> Note that execute has two arguments: first, a string with the sql
> statement text; second, a tuple containing the values. The %s in the sql
> text are placeholders, they're replaced with the corresponding value from
> the second argument. And there is no ' anywhere.


Well, what I did, that now works, was essentially what you suggested, and
simply assigned null values to variables that accept null values in the
database. That works. What I was trying to do was build up just those
variables that were to be updated or entered, and supply only those
arguments. At this point it is rather academic, but can that be done?

> However, if I print what that code spits out:
> >
> > sql = "'insert into products (" + col_names + ") values (" + val + ")',
> > (" +
> > col_names + ")"
> >
> > print sql
> >
> > then copy and paste it into a cursor.execute() statement, viola!
> > Everything
> > works _just_fine_. Go figure. Why??
>
> What you have done has no sense - why do you think it should work?


See above.

> pic1 = _mysql.escape_string(f)
> >
> > It does not like this (forgot error):
> >
> > pic1 = MySQLdb.Binary(f)
>
> You should make the above work. Look at the exception, read the error
> message, look at the traceback. There are a lot of info there.


Amazingly (because I thought I had tested this) both the escape string and
the db Binary work now.

> Escaping the string, I can successfully load this image into the
> > database,
> > along with all the other fields. Now, when I load an image from the form
> > on
> > the previous page with this code:
> >
> > <input type='file' name='pic1' value="""
> >
> > print '"', MySQLdb.Binary(data[14]), '"'
> >
> > and send the form off to the next page, when I process it on that page
>
> Why do you do *that*??? That <input> element is for the user to upload a
> file; if the file is already on the server, why do you transfer it from
> server to client and back to server? I doubt it can work this way. And why
> are you using Binary here? Binary is for sql stuff and you're building an
> HTML page here. (btw, didn't you say that Binary doesn't work?).


I said it did not work in the other page, but now it does. Anyway, what gets
uploaded is a binary string. How can I convert that into a pretty picture?

> pic1 = _mysql.escape_string(pic1)
> >
> > print pic1
> >
> > it prints out a messy binary that (almost) starts with something like
> > ¨This
> > program can only be run in Win32¨, whatever that means. But a binary is
> > printed. (It may be an infinite binary, I stopped it after a few
> > minutes.)
>
> Looks like a .exe; somehow you managed to upload a .exe instead of a jpg,
> I presume...


It was an image. At any rate, I do not see that in the images (or binary
strings) now loaded.

> Now, if I stick it into the cursor.execute like I did above, it throws an
> > HTTP non-error non-posting-to-the-database 200 error. I´m more than
> > happy to
> > separate all this garbage out for further testing, but I don´t know how
> > to
> > do that. Your help is very much appreciated.
>
> It seems you have a basic misunderstanding of how web applications work.
> Reading a book like "Python Web Programming" by Steve Holden might help.
>
> http://www.amazon.com/Python-Programming-Landmark-Steve-Holden/dp/0735710902


I have done a lot of reading over the years and I presume a lot of
forgetting. At any rate, looks like everything is working, thanks to your
help, except for the displaying of the image as opposed to the binary
string, which is no doubt some other stupid little mistake of mine. No
errors to send to analyze now. Can you shed some light on this last issue?
Again, thank you very much for your help and patience!
Victor

--
> Gabriel Genellina
>
> --
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/attachments/20080407/f4af09ee/attachment-0001.html>


More information about the Python-list mailing list