How to save an image to Database using MVC 4 - entity-framework

Question

So I have a project which is a Shopping Cart, I have to save images to the database instead of uploading them to the server, here is my model
namespace ShoppingCart.Models
{
[Bind(Exclude = "ItemID")]
public class Item
{
[ScaffoldColumn(false)]
public int ItemID { get; set; }
[DisplayName("Category")]
public int CategoryID { get; set; }
[DisplayName("Brand")]
public int BrandID { get; set; }
[Required(ErrorMessage = "A Name is required")]
[StringLength(160)]
public string Title { get; set; }
public string Description { get; set; }
[Required(ErrorMessage = "Price is required")]
[Range(0.01, 100.00,
ErrorMessage = "Price must be between 0.01 and 500.00")]
public decimal Price { get; set; }
[DisplayName("Album Art URL")]
[StringLength(1024)]
public string ItemArtUrl { get; set; }
public byte[] Picture { get; set; }
public virtual Category Category { get; set; }
public virtual Brand Brand { get; set; }
public virtual List<OrderDetail> OrderDetails { get; set; }
}
}
So Im unsure how to go about the controller to insert images or the view to display them, I have search for information about this but I cant really find anything, Im using entity framework code first.

Answer 1

There are two easy ways to do images -- one is to simply return the image itself in the controller:
[HttpGet]
[AllowAnonymous]
public ActionResult ViewImage(int id)
{
var item = _shoppingCartRepository.GetItem(id);
byte[] buffer = item.Picture;
return File(buffer, "image/jpg", string.Format("{0}.jpg", id));
}
And the view would just reference it:
<img src="Home/ViewImage/10" />
Additionally, you can include it in the ViewModel:
viewModel.ImageToShow = Convert.ToBase64String(item.Picture);
and in the view:
#Html.Raw("<img src=\"data:image/jpeg;base64," + viewModel.ImageToShow + "\" />");
For the data-store, you would simply use a byte array (varbinary(max)) or blob or any compatible type.
Uploading images
Here, an object called HeaderImage is an EntityFramework EntityObject. The controller would look something like:
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult UploadImages(HttpPostedFileBase[] uploadImages)
{
if (uploadImages.Count() <= 1)
{
return RedirectToAction("BrowseImages");
}
foreach (var image in uploadImages)
{
if (image.ContentLength > 0)
{
byte[] imageData = null;
using (var binaryReader = new BinaryReader(image.InputStream))
{
imageData = binaryReader.ReadBytes(image.ContentLength);
}
var headerImage = new HeaderImage
{
ImageData = imageData,
ImageName = image.FileName,
IsActive = true
};
imageRepository.AddHeaderImage(headerImage);
}
}
return RedirectToAction("BrowseImages");
}
The View would look something like:
#using (Html.BeginForm("UploadImages", "Home", FormMethod.Post, new { enctype = "multipart/form-data" }))
{
<div class="row">
<span class="span4">
<input type="file" name="uploadImages" multiple="multiple" class="input-files"/>
</span>
<span class="span2">
<input type="submit" name="button" value="Upload" class="btn btn-upload" />
</span>
</div>
}