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database-designflaskflask-sqlalchemyflask-adminflask-security

Flask: Connecting models to files, e.g. profile pictures

If it matters, I use Flask-Security, Flask-SQLAlchemy and Flask-Admin in my application.

How should I design my application so that I can connect a row in the database with one or more files, e.g. a user to their profile pictures?

Solution

  • If only one file/picture is required, it should work by adding another column. But if you want to associate multiple files to a specific user, you can create a new table for the relations:

    files table:

ID   |   USER_ID   |   FILEPATH
===================================================
1    |   1         |   somewhere/on/the/server.jpg
2    |   2         |   another/file.py
3    |   1         |   second/file/of/user/one.py

    The USER_ID column is a foreign key that references to the primary key in the users table. Take a look at the docs of Flask-SQLalchemy.