# How to save Base64 encoded image to Django ImageField?

I had to create an API that had to accept an image in Base64 encoded format and save it to Django image field, which requires an image file. So today I learned how to do this.

## Step 1: B64 to PIL

The first step will be to convert this B64 image to an image file in memory, I will be using Pillow for this. You can install Pillow using this bash command.

```bash
pip install pillow
```

Make sure you have pip installed. If you're using Linux or Mac OS, then you might have to use `pip3` instead of `pip`. But I'm using virtual env, so who cares.

after that, write this function.

```python
import base64
import io
from PIL import Image

def decodeDesignImage(data):
    try:
        data = base64.b64decode(data.encode('UTF-8'))
        buf = io.BytesIO(data)
        img = Image.open(buf)
        return img
    except:
        return None
```

This function will return a PIL image if the B64 data is valid, or it will return None.

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## Step 2: PIL to Django ImageField

After getting the PIL image, wrote a function that will take this PIL image, convert it into a JPEG file buffer and then inserted it to Database instance using `InMemoryUploadedFile`[^1]

What is InMemoryUploadedFile? This is basically a representation of the image in memory, that's as simple as it is.

```python
from django.core.files.uploadedfile import InMemoryUploadedFile

img = decodeDesignImage(data)
img_io = io.BytesIO()
img.save(img_io, format='JPEG')
design.image = InMemoryUploadedFile(img_io, field_name=None, name=token+".jpg", content_type='image/jpeg', size=img_io.tell, charset=None)
design.save()
```

The InMemoryUploadedFile class takes 6 parameters:

1. File buffer: This is the JPEG format IO buffer I created in line 5.
2. field_name: There wasn't much information about this, if you have any idea then please comment below.
3. name: This is the name of the file, make sure you add .jpg at the end.
4. content_type: This is pretty self explanatory.
5. size: The size in bytes of the file.
6. charset: The character set, the file data is using. In this case None.

Now if you check your Media folder, you'll see that image as if you've uploaded it via a form.

So that's it for today's "Today I Learned"


#### Footnotes

[^1]: InMemoryUploadedFile : https://kite.com/python/docs/django.core.files.uploadedfile.InMemoryUploadedFile