React File Upload

Express backend server app to handle file uploads. React frontend.

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Table of contents

• General info
• Screenshots
• Technologies
• Setup
• Features
• Status
• Inspiration
• Contact

General info

• Uploads an image file from the React frontend. This file is fetched by the backend using express.jsm and stored in a files directory in the public folder.

• The frontend uses a FormData object with inputs for the file itself and a file name. The image will be displayed on the frontend.

Screenshots

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Technologies

• Node.js v12.3.1 javascript runtime using the Chrome V8 engine.

• React v16.10.2 Frontend javascript library.

Frontend Setup

npm run start

• Runs the app in development mode. Open http://localhost:3000 to view in browser.

• The page will reload if you make edits. You will also see any lint errors in the console.

Backend Setup

nodemon app.js

• Runs the backend in development mode. Open http://localhost:8000 to view in browser.

Code Examples

• extract of Frontend Main.js that handles the file upload.

  // function to upload an image. FormData() constructor used to create a new FormData object.  
  // file will be fetched by the backend server running on port 8000.
  handleUploadImage(event) {
    event.preventDefault();

    const data = new FormData();
    data.append('file', this.uploadInput.files[0]);
    data.append('filename', this.fileName.value);

    fetch('http://localhost:8000/upload', {
      method: 'POST',
      body: data,
    }).then((response) => {
      response.json().then((body) => {
        this.setState({ imageURL: `http://localhost:8000/${body.file}` });
      });
    });
  }

Status & To-Do List

• Status: updated oct 2019. working front-end. When running back-end gives a 404 error message 'file not found'.

• To do: check backend code.

Inspiration

• Medium article by Antonio Erdeljac, jan 2018: File upload with Node & React

• Signet article (original) by Antonio Erdeljac: File upload with Node & React

Contact

Repo created by ABateman - feel free to contact me!