CouchDB On-the-fly attachments through command-line

Question

PROBLEM

I want to be able to attach one/multiple attachment(s) as the document is created, through the command-line (see below). I can only get this to work in Futon (Couchbase), but only after a document has already been created.

I have tried the following:

curl -X PUT 'http://username:password@localhost:5984/client_info'

curl -X POST 'http://username:password@localhost:5984/client_info' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"client_type": "Private", "client_name": "John Doe","client_email": "[email protected]","client_city": "Toronto","created_at": "2011-09-06 12:45:03","expires_at": "2012-01-01 00:00:00", "_attachments": {
   "test01.jpg": {
       "content_type": "image/jpeg",
       "length": 30189          
    }
  }
}'

This only results in the following error:

{"error":"unknown_error","reason":"function_clause"}

Thanks

Answer 1

You must upload your attachment in a separate step, containing the actual attachment file in the request body. So first create your regular document, then issue another request where you upload the file. Here is an example on how to upload an attachment using curl (http://guide.couchdb.org/draft/api.html#attachments): curl -v -X PUT http://127.0.0.1:5984/albums/6e1295ed6c29495e54cc05947f18c8af/artwork.jpg?rev=2-2739352689 --data-binary @artwork.jpg -H "Content-Type: image/jpg"

And here is the official API for attachments: http://wiki.apache.org/couchdb/HTTP_Document_API#Standalone_Attachments

Answer 2

Here is a way to upload an attachment in the same request as the creation of the document.

curl -X POST 'http://user:pass@localhost:5984/client_stuff' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"stuff": "stuff", "_attachments": {
   "empty.gif": {
       "content_type": "image/gif",
       "data": "'$(openssl base64 < file.gif)'"
    }
  }
}'

Depending on your use case, the Base64-encoding may not be so bad.

More info: http://wiki.apache.org/couchdb/HTTP_Document_API#Inline_Attachments

Answer 3

This works for me, and seems a little simpler. The first one has to be when creating the doc, if you don't add a rev. My examples uses database "test1".

$ curl -H "Content-Type: image/jpeg" -X PUT --data-binary @test01.jpg 'http://username:password@localhost:5984/test1/client_info/test01.jpg'

{"ok":true,"id":"client_info","rev":"1-8584b6af9d0c3347ba08202697f09952"}

$ curl -H "Content-Type: image/jpeg" -X PUT --data-binary @test02.jpg 'http://username:password@localhost:5984/test1/client_info/test02.jpg?rev=1-8584b6af9d0c3347ba08202697f09952'

{"ok":true,"id":"client_info","rev":"2-623b94aba30944d6744f5c11cf03fc10"}