File uploads

GQL supports file uploads with the aiohttp transport, the requests transport, the httpx transport, and the httpx async transport, using the GraphQL multipart request spec.

Single File

In order to upload a single file, you need to:

  • set the file as a variable value in the mutation

  • provide the opened file to the variable_values argument of execute

  • set the upload_files argument to True

transport = AIOHTTPTransport(url='YOUR_URL')
# Or transport = RequestsHTTPTransport(url='YOUR_URL')
# Or transport = HTTPXTransport(url='YOUR_URL')
# Or transport = HTTPXAsyncTransport(url='YOUR_URL')

client = Client(transport=transport)

query = gql('''
  mutation($file: Upload!) {
    singleUpload(file: $file) {
      id
    }
  }
''')

with open("YOUR_FILE_PATH", "rb") as f:

    params = {"file": f}

    result = client.execute(
        query, variable_values=params, upload_files=True
    )

Setting the content-type

If you need to set a specific Content-Type attribute to a file, you can set the content_type attribute of the file like this:

with open("YOUR_FILE_PATH", "rb") as f:

    # Setting the content-type to a pdf file for example
    f.content_type = "application/pdf"

    params = {"file": f}

    result = client.execute(
        query, variable_values=params, upload_files=True
    )

File list

It is also possible to upload multiple files using a list.

transport = AIOHTTPTransport(url='YOUR_URL')
# Or transport = RequestsHTTPTransport(url='YOUR_URL')
# Or transport = HTTPXTransport(url='YOUR_URL')
# Or transport = HTTPXAsyncTransport(url='YOUR_URL')

client = Client(transport=transport)

query = gql('''
  mutation($files: [Upload!]!) {
    multipleUpload(files: $files) {
      id
    }
  }
''')

f1 = open("YOUR_FILE_PATH_1", "rb")
f2 = open("YOUR_FILE_PATH_2", "rb")

params = {"files": [f1, f2]}

result = client.execute(
    query, variable_values=params, upload_files=True
)

f1.close()
f2.close()

Streaming

If you use the above methods to send files, then the entire contents of the files must be loaded in memory before the files are sent. If the files are not too big and you have enough RAM, it is not a problem. On another hand if you want to avoid using too much memory, then it is better to read the files and send them in small chunks so that the entire file contents don’t have to be in memory at once.

We provide methods to do that for two different uses cases:

  • Sending local files

  • Streaming downloaded files from an external URL to the GraphQL API

Note

Streaming is only supported with the aiohttp transport

Streaming local files

aiohttp allows to upload files using an asynchronous generator. See Streaming uploads on aiohttp docs.

In order to stream local files, instead of providing opened files to the variable_values argument of execute, you need to provide an async generator which will provide parts of the files.

You can use aiofiles to read the files in chunks and create this asynchronous generator.

Example:

transport = AIOHTTPTransport(url='YOUR_URL')

client = Client(transport=transport)

query = gql('''
  mutation($file: Upload!) {
    singleUpload(file: $file) {
      id
    }
  }
''')

async def file_sender(file_name):
    async with aiofiles.open(file_name, 'rb') as f:
        chunk = await f.read(64*1024)
            while chunk:
                yield chunk
                chunk = await f.read(64*1024)

params = {"file": file_sender(file_name='YOUR_FILE_PATH')}

result = client.execute(
            query, variable_values=params, upload_files=True
    )

Streaming downloaded files

If the file you want to upload to the GraphQL API is not present locally and needs to be downloaded from elsewhere, then it is possible to chain the download and the upload in order to limit the amout of memory used.

Because the content attribute of an aiohttp response is a StreamReader (it provides an async iterator protocol), you can chain the download and the upload together.

In order to do that, you need to:

  • get the response from an aiohttp request and then get the StreamReader instance from resp.content

  • provide the StreamReader instance to the variable_values argument of execute

Example:

# First request to download your file with aiohttp
async with aiohttp.ClientSession() as http_client:
    async with http_client.get('YOUR_DOWNLOAD_URL') as resp:

        # We now have a StreamReader instance in resp.content
        # and we provide it to the variable_values argument of execute

        transport = AIOHTTPTransport(url='YOUR_GRAPHQL_URL')

        client = Client(transport=transport)

        query = gql('''
          mutation($file: Upload!) {
            singleUpload(file: $file) {
              id
            }
          }
        ''')

        params = {"file": resp.content}

        result = client.execute(
            query, variable_values=params, upload_files=True
        )