This is the image that is shown at the home page, and maybe other pages
in the future. We can not use a static file because this image can be
changed by the customer, not us; just like name and description.
I decided to keep the actual media content in the database, but to copy
this file out to the file system the first time it is accessed. This is
because we are going to replicate the database to a public instance that
must show exactly the same image, but the customer will update the image
from the private instance, behind a firewall. We could also synchronize
the folder where they upload the images, the same way we will replicate,
but i thought that i would make the whole thing a little more brittle:
this way if it can replicate the update of the media, it is impossible
to not have its contents; dumping it to a file is to improve subsequent
requests to the same media.
I use the hex representation of the media’s hash as the URL to the
resource, because PostgreSQL’s base64 is not URL save (i.e., it uses
RFC2045’s charset that includes the forward slash[0]), and i did not
feel necessary write a new function just to slightly reduce the URLs’
length.
Before checking if the file exists, i make sure that the given hash is
an hex string, like i do for UUID, otherwise any other check is going
to fail for sure. I moved out hex.Valid function from UUID to check for
valid hex values, but the actual hash check is inside app/media because
i doubt it will be used outside that module.
[0]: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2045#section-6.8
I do not see the profile image as an “integral part” of the user (i.e.,
no need for constraints), hence i do not want to store it in the
database, as would do for the identification image during check-in.
By default, i store the avatars in /var/lib/camper/avatars, but it is a
variable to allow packagers change this value using the linker.
This is also served as a test bed for uploading files to the server,
that now has a better interface and uses less resources that what i did
to Numerus.
Now the profile handler needs to keep a variable to know the path to the
avatars’ directory, thus i had to change it to a struct nested in app,
much like the fileHandler does. It still has to return the HandlerFunc,
however, as this function needs to close over the user and connection
variables.
Part of #7.
jordi fita mas