Question

Currently I am saving a file to a loal directory from a ftp server. But I want to move to using ImageFields to make things more manageable.

here is the current code snippet

file_handle = open(savePathDir +'/' +  fname, "wb")            
nvcftp.retrbinary("RETR " + fname, _download_cb)
file_handle.close()    
return savePathDir +'/' +  fname

Here is my first attempt at matching. I am returning the path just for compatibilities sake for now. Later I will access the stored files properly through the model.

new_image = CameraImage(video_channel = videochannel,timestamp = file_timestamp)
file_handle = new_image.image.open()
nvcftp.retrbinary("RETR " + fname, _download_cb)
file_handle.close()
new_image.save()
return new_image.path()

Is this correct?
I am confused about what order I should deal with the file_handle and the ImageField “image”

Answer 1

You are missing _download_cb, so I’m not using it.
Refs The File Object of Django. Try

# retrieve file from ftp to memory,
# consider using cStringIO or tempfile modules for your actual usage

from StringIO import StringIO
from django.core.files.base import ContentFile
s = StringIO()
nvcftp.retrbinary("RETR " + fname, s.write)
s.seek(0)  
# feed the fetched file to Django image field
new_image.image.save(fname, ContentFile(s.read()))
s.close()

# Or
from django.core.files.base import File
s = StringIO()
nvcftp.retrbinary("RETR " + fname, s.write)
s.size = s.tell()
new_image.image.save(fname, File(s))