How to generate a thumbnail image after adding an image inside an input type="file" in a form and submitting them both on the same form

Question

I have a form which allows the user to upload a picture. After the user has submitted the form, I'd like to generate on the front-end a thumbnail for each picture and then store it on server.

For security reason it's not possible to alter the value of a file input field, so how could I send to server some thumbnails images generated on the front-end in js?

Is it possible on front-end to generate a thumbnail from the image set in the input file field before form submit? And then submitting both at same time?

Answer 1

I found This simpler yet powerful tutorial. It simply creates an img element and, using the fileReader object, assigns its source attribute as the value of the form input

function previewFile() {
  var preview = document.querySelector('img');
  var file    = document.querySelector('input[type=file]').files[0];
  var reader  = new FileReader();

  reader.onloadend = function () {
    preview.src = reader.result;
  }

  if (file) {
    reader.readAsDataURL(file);
  } else {
    preview.src = "";
  }
}

<input type="file" onchange="previewFile()"><br>
<img src="" height="200" alt="Image preview...">

Answer 2

After a better search online I found the answer to my question.

It is possible to combine canvas together with the File API.

Try to upload any picture in the demo below and see that a new generated thumbnail will appear on the right side of the form.

DEMO: http://jsfiddle.net/a_incarnati/fua75hpv/

function handleImage(e){
    var reader = new FileReader();
    reader.onload = function(event){
        var img = new Image();
        img.onload = function(){
            canvas.width = img.width;
            canvas.height = img.height;
            ctx.drawImage(img,0,0);
        }
        img.src = event.target.result;
    }
    reader.readAsDataURL(e.target.files[0]);     
}

A good answer has been given by DerekR to this question:

How to upload image into HTML5 canvas

Answer 3

Building on top of what Allesandro wrote to something more pragmatic.

The function takes a file from the File API and tries to fit it in the boundBox while preserving the aspect ratio. Nothing is drawn, but instead you get back a Promise that spits the dataUrl generated.

// Creates a thumbnail fitted insize the boundBox (w x h)
generateThumbnail(file, boundBox) {
  if (!boundBox || boundBox.length != 2){
    throw "You need to give the boundBox"
  }
  const canvas = document.createElement("canvas")
  const ctx = canvas.getContext('2d')
  if (!ctx) {
    throw new Error('Context not available')
  }

  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    const img = new Image();
    img.onerror = reject
    img.onload = function() {
      const scaleRatio = Math.min(...boundBox) / Math.max(img.width, img.height)
      const w = img.width * scaleRatio
      const h = img.height * scaleRatio
      canvas.width = w
      canvas.height = h
      ctx.drawImage(img, 0, 0, w, h)
      return resolve(canvas.toDataURL(file.type))
    }
    img.src = window.URL.createObjectURL(file)
  })
}

It can be used like below

generateThumbnail(file, [300, 300]).then(function(dataUrl){
    console.log(dataUrl)
})

Answer 4

Thought it might be worth adding a more contemporary answer and citing MDN Web Docs.

You can add an event listener for "change" on the input element and then show a thumbnail of the selected image by accessing the file list through this.files (as shown in an MDN examples). Here is a recent implementation of mine. uploadWatermark is an <input type="file></input>

uploadWatermark.addEventListener('change', function(){
  const file = this.files[0];
  if (file.type.startsWith('image/')) {
    const img = document.createElement('img');
    const watermarkPreview = document.getElementById("uploaded-watermark");

    img.classList.add("prev-thumb");
    img.file = file;
    watermarkPreview.appendChild(img);

    const reader = new FileReader();
    reader.onload = (function(aImg) { return function(e) { aImg.src =   e.target.result; }})(img);
    reader.readAsDataURL(file);
  }
  
});

Answer 5

TL;DR: See the JSFiddle

As I wanted to upload images via an API and show a preview of the image (two things that actually lended themselves well to each other), I came up with this:

(function(angular) {
    angular
        .module('app')
        .directive('inputFilePreview', [function() {

            var canvas, mapToModel, elementScope;

            /**
             * To be fired when the image has been loaded
             */
            var imageOnLoad = function(){
                canvas.width = this.width;
                canvas.height = this.height;
                canvas.getContext("2d").drawImage(this,0,0);
            };

            /**
             * To be fired when the FileReader has loaded
             * @param loadEvent {{}}
             */
            var readerOnLoad = function(loadEvent){
                var img = new Image();
                img.onload = imageOnLoad;
                img.src = loadEvent.target.result;
                if(mapToModel) {
                    setModelValue(elementScope, mapToModel, img.src);
                }
            };

            /**
             * This allows us to set the value of a model in the scope of the element (or global scope if the
             * model is an object)
             * @param scope {{}}
             * @param modelReference {string}
             * @param value {*}
             */
            var setModelValue = function(scope, modelReference, value) {
                // If the model reference refers to the propery of an object (eg. "object.property")
                if(~modelReference.indexOf('.')) {
                    var parts = modelReference.split('.', 2);
                    // Only set the value if that object already exists
                    if(scope.hasOwnProperty(parts[0])) {
                        scope[parts[0]][parts[1]] = value;
                        return;
                    }
                }
                scope[modelReference] = value;
            };

            /**
             * The logic for our directive
             * @param scope {{}}
             * @param element {{}}
             * @param attributes {{}}
             */
            var link = function(scope, element, attributes) {
                elementScope = scope;
                canvas = document.getElementById(attributes.inputFilePreview);
                if(attributes.hasOwnProperty('mapToModel')) {
                    mapToModel = attributes.mapToModel;
                }
                element.on('change', function(changeEvent) {
                    var reader = new FileReader();
                    reader.onload = readerOnLoad;
                    reader.readAsDataURL(changeEvent.target.files[0]);
                });
            };

            return {
                restrict: 'A',
                link: link
            };
        }]);
})(angular);

The two elements needed for the preview to work are:

<canvas id="image-preview"></canvas>
<input type="file" data-input-file-preview="image-preview" data-map-to-model="image.file" />

Snippet Follows:

(function (angular) {
    angular.module('app', [])
        .directive('inputFilePreview', [function () {

        var canvas, mapToModel, elementScope;

        /**
         * To be fired when the image has been loaded
         */
        var imageOnLoad = function () {
            canvas.width = this.width;
            canvas.height = this.height;
            canvas.getContext("2d").drawImage(this, 0, 0);
        };

        /**
         * To be fired when the FileReader has loaded
         * @param loadEvent {{}}
         */
        var readerOnLoad = function (loadEvent) {
            var img = new Image();
            img.onload = imageOnLoad;
            img.src = loadEvent.target.result;
            if (mapToModel) {
                setModelValue(elementScope, mapToModel, img.src);
            }
        };

        /**
         * This allows us to set the value of a model in the scope of the element (or global scope if the
         * model is an object)
         * @param scope {{}}
         * @param modelReference {string}
         * @param value {*}
         */
        var setModelValue = function (scope, modelReference, value) {
            // If the model reference refers to the propery of an object (eg. "object.property")
            if (~modelReference.indexOf('.')) {
                var parts = modelReference.split('.', 2);
                // Only set the value if that object already exists
                if (scope.hasOwnProperty(parts[0])) {
                    scope[parts[0]][parts[1]] = value;
                    return;
                }
            }
            scope[modelReference] = value;
        };

        /**
         * The logic for our directive
         * @param scope {{}}
         * @param element {{}}
         * @param attributes {{}}
         */
        var link = function (scope, element, attributes) {
            elementScope = scope;
            canvas = document.getElementById(attributes.inputFilePreview);
            if (attributes.hasOwnProperty('mapToModel')) {
                mapToModel = attributes.mapToModel;
            }
            element.on('change', function (changeEvent) {
                var reader = new FileReader();
                reader.onload = readerOnLoad;
                reader.readAsDataURL(changeEvent.target.files[0]);
            });
        };

        return {
            restrict: 'A',
            link: link
        };
    }])
        .controller('UploadImageController', [
        '$scope',

    function ($scope) {

        $scope.image = {
            title: 'Test title'
        };

        $scope.send = function (data) {
            $scope.sentData = JSON.stringify(data, null, 2);
            return false;
        };
    }]);
})(angular);

canvas {
    max-height: 300px;
    max-width: 300px;
}

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.2.23/angular.min.js"></script>
<form data-ng-app="app" data-ng-controller="UploadImageController">
    <input data-ng-model="image.title" />
    <br />
    <canvas id="image-preview"></canvas>
    <br />
    <input type="file" data-input-file-preview="image-preview" data-map-to-model="image.file" />
    <br />
    <input type="submit" data-ng-click="send(image)" />
    
    <pre>{{sentData}}</pre>
</form>

Answer 6

You can achieve it with URL.createObjectUrl().

  const handleImage = (e) => {
    const file = e.target.files[0]
    const url = URL.createObjectURL(file)

    return url
  }

  const addBackground = (url) => {
    document.querySelector('.wrapper').style.background = `url("${url}")`;
  }

<div className='wrapper'></div>

Caution

URL.createObjectUrl() can cause memory leak, so you have to release it by URL.revokeObjectURL() after using url.