Saving files using Paperclip without upload

Question

I had a quick question. Is it possible to save a file without actually uploading it through a form?

For example, let's say I'm looking at attachments from emails, and I want to save them using a paperclip. How do I do this? Do I manually have to call a save_file(or something similar) somewhere?

Any help would be much appreciated!

Answer 1

I have a rake task that loads images (client logos) from a directory directly onto parperclip. You can probably adapt it to your needs.

This is my simplified Client model:

class Client < ActiveRecord::Base
  LOGO_STYLES = {
    :original => ['1024x768>', :jpg],
    :medium   => ['256x192#', :jpg],
    :small    => ['128x96#', :jpg]
  }

  has_attached_file :logo,
    :styles => Client::LOGO_STYLES,
    :url => "/clients/logo/:id.jpg?style=:style"
  attr_protected :logo_file_name, :logo_content_type, :logo_size

Then on my rake task I do this:

# the logos are in a folder with path logos_dir
Dir.glob(File.join(logos_dir,'*')).each do |logo_path|
  if File.basename(logo_path)[0]!= '.' and !File.directory? logo_path

    client_code = File.basename(logo_path, '.*') #filename without extension
    client = Client.find_by_code(client_code) #you could use the ids, too
    raise "could not find client for client_code #{client_code}" if client.nil?

    File.open(logo_path) do |f|
      client.logo = f # just assign the logo attribute to a file
      client.save
    end #file gets closed automatically here
  end
end

Regards!