Using files in models¶

When you use a FileField or ImageField, Django provides a set of APIs you can use to deal with that file.

Consider the following model, using an ImageField to store a photo:

class Car(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=255)
    price = models.DecimalField(max_digits=5, decimal_places=2)
    photo = models.ImageField(upload_to='cars')

Any Car instance will have a photo attribute that you can use to get at the details of the attached photo:

>>> car = Car.objects.get(name="57 Chevy")
>>> car.photo
<ImageFieldFile: chevy.jpg>
>>> car.photo.name
u'cars/chevy.jpg'
>>> car.photo.path
u'/media/cars/chevy.jpg'
>>> car.photo.url
u'http://media.example.com/cars/chevy.jpg'

This object -- car.photo in the example -- is a File object, which means it has all the methods and attributes described below.

The File object¶

Internally, Django uses a django.core.files.File any time it needs to represent a file. This object is a thin wrapper around Python's built-in file object with some Django-specific additions.

Most of the time you'll simply use a File that Django's given you (i.e. a file attached to a model as above, or perhaps an uploaded file).

If you need to construct a File yourself, the easiest way is to create one using a Python built-in file object:

>>> from django.core.files import File

# Create a Python file object using open()
>>> f = open('/tmp/hello.world', 'w')
>>> myfile = File(f)

Now you can use any of the File attributes and methods documented in The File object.

File storage¶

Behind the scenes, Django delegates decisions about how and where to store files to a file storage system. This is the object that actually understands things like file systems, opening and reading files, etc.

Django's default file storage is given by the DEFAULT_FILE_STORAGE setting; if you don't explicitly provide a storage system, this is the one that will be used.

See below for details of the built-in default file storage system, and see Writing a custom storage system for information on writing your own file storage system.

>>> from django.core.files.storage import default_storage
>>> from django.core.files.base import ContentFile

>>> path = default_storage.save('/path/to/file', ContentFile('new content'))
>>> path
u'/path/to/file'

>>> default_storage.size(path)
11
>>> default_storage.open(path).read()
'new content'

>>> default_storage.delete(path)
>>> default_storage.exists(path)
False

from django.db import models
from django.core.files.storage import FileSystemStorage

fs = FileSystemStorage(location='/media/photos')

class Car(models.Model):
    ...
    photo = models.ImageField(storage=fs)