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So I have a node js web app, this web app has a folder to store images uploaded by users from a mobile app. How I upload the image to the folder is by using the image's base64 string, and using fs.writeFile to save the image to the folder, like this:

fs.writeFile(__dirname + '/../images/complaintImg/complaintcase_' + data.cID + '.jpg', Buffer.from(data.complaintImage, 'base64'), function (err) {
    if (err) {
        console.log(err);
    } else {
        console.log("success");
    }
});

The problem is, whenever the application is redeployed to google cloud, the images gets deleted. This is because the image folder of the local version of the application is empty - when the user uploads an image, i don't get a local copy of that image.

How do i prevent the images from getting deleted with every deployment? because the app is constantly updated (changes to js or html files), i can't have the images getting deleted with every deployment. How do i update a deployment to only deploy certain files? the gcloud app deploy command seems to deploy the entire project. or should i upload the images directly to google cloud storage?

please help, currently the mobile app isn't released to the public yet, so having the images deleted with every deployment is still not a big problem now, but it will be once it's released to the public. because the images they upload are very important. thank you in advance!

Almira
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2 Answers2

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It appears that your __dirname directory you chose may be under /tmp or, if you use the flexible environment, some other directory local to your instance. If so the images will disappear whenever new instances are started (which always happens at new deployment, but it can happen in between deployments as well). This is expected, the instances are always started "from scratch".

You need to store the files that your app creates and you want to survive instance (re)starts on a persistent storage product, like Cloud Storage, see Using Cloud Storage (or Using Cloud Storage for flexible env). Note that you can't use the regular filesystem calls with Cloud Storage, you need to use the documented client library.

Dan Cornilescu
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As stated in Dan Cornilescu's answer, for user uploaded files, you should store them in Cloud Storage for GAE Standard or for GAE Flexible.

Just as a reference, there is an alternative for those who are using Python 2.7, Java 8 or PHP 5, which is the BlobStore API

Jose V
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