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pythondjangoboto3python-django-storages

How to generate presigned S3 urls using django-storages?


I have a Django form which saves a file to s3 through the django-storages library and works fine. How can I generate and return a pre-signed url so the user can access the file temporarily after it is uploaded ? Is this abstracted by django-storages or do I have to use the boto3 api?

I have spent hours going through the Django-storages documentation however it is not very clear how to do this ..

form.py

class DocumentForm(forms.Form):
    docfile = forms.FileField(
        label='Select a file',
        help_text='max. 42 megabytes'
    )
   name = models.CharField(max_length=20)
   uploaded_at = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)

views.py

def upload_file(request):
   if request.method == 'POST':
      form = DocumentForm(request.POST)
      if form.is_valid():
         form.save()
         url = ... # generate pre-signed url of uploaded file here
         return render(request, 'upload_response.html', url)


Solution

  • Turns out you do not need to use boto3 to generate a presigned url. Django-storages abstracts the entire process. You can simply access the url attribute on the FileField, like in this example:

    document_form = DocumentForm.objects.get(pk=1)
    url = document_form.docfile.url
    

    --- Edit ----

    For reference, here is the S3 storage class method that generates the pre-signed url for you https://github.com/jschneier/django-storages/blob/770332b598712da27ecdba75c9e202ad6a1a8722/storages/backends/s3boto3.py#L554