Display a downloaded blob image

Question

I'm trying to be able to display images that can be edited in the back end, but these have to be available while offline too. To acomplish this goal I'm downloading these images with the following method (which is the only one that worked for me)

download_save_picture(picture_url) {
  let splited_url = picture_url.split('/');
  var filename = splited_url[splited_url.length - 1];

  var config = { responseType: 'blob' as 'blob' };

  this.httpClient.get(picture_url, config).subscribe(
    data => {
      this.file.writeFile(this.file.dataDirectory, filename, data, { replace: true });
    },
    err => console.error(err),
    () => { }
  );
}

And then I can verify that these files exist and that their weight is also different from 0, so I guess everyting is correct until this point.

this.file.checkFile(this.file.dataDirectory, filename)
.then(() => {
  alert("File Exist!!!");  // I always enter here
})
.catch((err) => {
  alert("ERR : " + err);
});

this.file.resolveLocalFilesystemUrl(this.file.dataDirectory + filename).then((entry: any)=>{
  entry.getMetadata((metadata) => {
      alert("SIZE: " + metadata.size);
  })
}).catch((error)=>{
  alert(error);
});

So the next step is to display the image which is in the path this.file.dataDirectory + filename, how can I do this?

After searching for a solution and reading I understand that I have to:

1. Load the file binary content.

2. Convert this binary content to base 64.

3. Then display it with src="data:image/jpeg;base64,"+{{image_in_base64}};

But until now I've not been able to do steps 1 (load the file content) and 2 (convert it to base 64), how can I do that?

Answer 1

At the end it was easier and faster to use LocalStorage instead of files

First I made the function download_save_picture(picture_url) which save the content of the image in picture_url in Base64 in localStorage(key), the key will be everything after the last /, so if we use the URL https://www.w3schools.com/w3css/img_lights.jpg the content will be saved in icon.img_lights.jpg.

download_save_picture(picture_url) {
  let splited_url = picture_url.split('/');
  var name = splited_url[splited_url.length - 1];

  if (localStorage.getItem('icon.' + name) === null) {
    var config = { responseType: 'blob' as 'blob' };

    this.httpClient.get(picture_url, config).subscribe(
      data => {
        var reader = new FileReader();

        reader.readAsDataURL(data);

        reader.onload = function() {
          window.localStorage.setItem('icon.' + name, reader.result);
        }
      },
      err => console.error(err),
      () => { }
    );
  }
}

Then at the view I display the image with <img src={{useLocalImage(item.image)}}></p>, where useLocalImage simply returns the content saved in localStorage.

useLocalImage(picture_url) {
  let splited_url = picture_url.split('/');
  var name = splited_url[splited_url.length - 1];

  var icon_name = window.localStorage.getItem('icon.' + name);

  return icon_name;
}

Answer 2

Following is the code that worked for me.

<input #fileinput type="file" [(ngModel)]="file_obj" (click)="resetFileInput()" (change)="onUploadChange()"/>

Then in your typescript code.

@ViewChild('fileinput') file_input;
file_obj:any;
onUploadChange() {
    const file = this.file_input.nativeElement.files[0];
    const fReader = new FileReader();
    fReader.readAsDataURL(file);
    fReader.onloadend = function(event) {
    //do whatever you want with the result here.
      console.log(event.target['result']);
    };
  }
 resetFileInput() {
    this.file_input.nativeElement.value = '';
  }

UPDATE - If you are using Ionic Native File or Cordova File Plugin

Ionic Native file is different from the browser File object. There seems to be a method called getFile() , which returns FileEntry object This has something called method .file() which returns a Native file object . And then use the FileReader to read the file as dataURL using readAsDataURL method.