Where does flask look for image files?
PythonFile UploadFlaskWeb Development-ServerPython Problem Overview
I am setting up a local server using flask. All I want to do currently is display an image using the img tag in the index.html page. But I keep getting error
GET http://localhost:5000/
ayrton_senna_movie_wallpaper_by_bashgfx-d4cm6x6.jpg 404 (NOT FOUND)
Where does flask look for files? A Little help would be great. My HTML code is
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Hi Lionel Messi</h1>
<img src= "ayrton_senna_movie_wallpaper_by_bashgfx-d4cm6x6.jpg ">
</body>
</html>
My python code is :
@app.route('/index', methods=['GET', 'POST'])
def lionel():
return app.send_static_file('index.html')
Python Solutions
Solution 1 - Python
Is the image file ayrton_senna_movie_wallpaper_by_bashgfx-d4cm6x6.jpg in your static directory? If you move it to your static directory and update your HTML as such:
<img src="/static/ayrton_senna_movie_wallpaper_by_bashgfx-d4cm6x6.jpg">
It should work.
Also, it is worth noting, there is a better way to structure this.
File structure:
app.py
static
|----ayrton_senna_movie_wallpaper_by_bashgfx-d4cm6x6.jpg
templates
|----index.html
app.py
from flask import Flask, render_template, url_for
app = Flask(__name__)
@app.route('/index', methods=['GET', 'POST'])
def lionel():
return render_template('index.html')
if __name__ == '__main__':
app.run()
templates/index.html
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Hi Lionel Messi</h1>
<img src="{{url_for('static', filename='ayrton_senna_movie_wallpaper_by_bashgfx-d4cm6x6.jpg')}}" />
</body>
</html>
Doing it this way ensures that you are not hard-coding a URL path for your static assets.
Solution 2 - Python
use absolute path where the image actually exists (e.g) '/home/artitra/pictures/filename.jpg'
or create static folder inside your project directory like this
| templates
- static/
- images/
- yourimagename.jpg
then do this
app = Flask(__name__, static_url_path='/static')
then you can access your image like this in index.html
src ="/static/images/yourimage.jpg"
in img tag
Solution 3 - Python
It took me a while to figure this out too. url_for in Flask looks for endpoints that you specified in the routes.py script.
So if you have a decorator in your routes.py file like @blah.route('/folder.subfolder') then Flask will recognize the command {{ url_for('folder.subfolder') , filename = "some_image.jpg" }} . The 'folder.subfolder' argument sends it to a Flask endpoint it recognizes.
However let us say that you stored your image file, some_image.jpg, in your subfolder, BUT did not specify this subfolder as a route endpoint in your flask routes.py, your route decorator looks like @blah.routes('/folder'). You then have to ask for your image file this way:
{{ url_for('folder'), filename = 'subfolder/some_image.jpg' }}
I.E. you tell Flask to go to the endpoint it knows, "folder", then direct it from there by putting the subdirectory path in the filename argument.
Solution 4 - Python
From the documentation:
> Dynamic web applications also need static files. That’s usually where
> the CSS and JavaScript files are coming from. Ideally your web server
> is configured to serve them for you, but during development Flask can
> do that as well. Just create a folder called static in your package or
> next to your module and it will be available at /static on the
> application.
>
> To generate URLs for static files, use the special 'static' endpoint
> name:
>
> url_for('static', filename='style.css')
>
> The file has to be stored on the filesystem as static/style.css.