Rails 3: How to get image path in Controller?

Question

To get the image path in Controller I use the following method:

class AssetsController < ApplicationController
  def download(image_file_name)
    path = Rails.root.join("public", "images", image_file_name).to_s
    send_file(path, ...)
  end
end

Is there a better method to find the path ?

Possible duplicate of [Access Asset Path from Rails Controller](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7827078/access-asset-path-from-rails-controller) — vinibrsl, Dec 06 '18 at 20:01

score 65 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:17

65

ActionController::Base.helpers.asset_path('missing_file.jpg')

Access Asset Path from Rails Controller

edited May 23 '17 at 12:17

Community

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answered Jul 16 '12 at 01:02

deefour

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This did not work for me, I wanted to use `image_path` not `asset_path`. It could not target files in my images folder. Using `view_context` worked instead. – Seth Jeffery Oct 12 '15 at 07:58
For anybody using webpacker to handle static assets use this instead: `ActionController::Base.helpers.asset_pack_path('missing_file.jpg')`. – stratis Apr 04 '22 at 11:45

score 24 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 21 '11 at 18:23

24

Not sure if this was added as early as Rails 3, but is definitely working in Rails 3.1. You can now access the view_context from your controller, which allows you to call methods that are normally accessible to your views:

class AssetsController < ApplicationController
  def download(image_file_name)
    path = view_context.image_path(image_file_name)
    # ... use path here ...
  end
end

Note that this will give you the publicly accessible path (e.g.: "/assets/foobar.gif"), not the local filesystem path.

answered Nov 21 '11 at 18:23

Matt Huggins

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Worked for me in Rails 4 – Seth Jeffery Oct 12 '15 at 07:57
2

Worked for me in Rails 4, including `asset_url` which doesn't add domain in `ActionController::Base.helpers`. – kolen Jul 29 '16 at 17:40
This does not work when there is no view_context. In that case, prefer deefour's solution – Mizmor Aug 03 '18 at 16:53

score 8 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 10 '14 at 20:22

8

view_context.image_path('noimage.jpg')

answered Nov 10 '14 at 20:22

Ricardo Rivas

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A little explanation would be nice! – gsamaras Nov 10 '14 at 22:00
class SomeControllerController < ApplicationController def some_method view_context.image_path('noimage.jpg') end end – Ricardo Rivas Nov 11 '14 at 22:36
I believe view_context loads asset_path and image_path as dependencies. – Eddie Feb 02 '18 at 20:48

score 6 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 02 '15 at 09:07

6

Asset url:

ActionController::Base.helpers.asset_path(my_path)

Image url:

ActionController::Base.helpers.image_path(my_path)

answered Nov 02 '15 at 09:07

ilgam

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score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 28 '17 at 15:30

view_context works for me in Rails 4.2 and Rails 5.

Find some codes in Rails repo explains view_context:

# definition
module ActionView
  # ...
  module Rendering
    # ...
    def view_context
      view_context_class.new(view_renderer, view_assigns, self)
    end
  end
end

# called in controller module
module ActionController
  # ...
  module Helpers
    # Provides a proxy to access helper methods from outside the view.
    def helpers
      @_helper_proxy ||= view_context
    end
  end
end

Marius Butuc · Answer 6 · 2017-03-06T20:04:49.113

You might want to check out image_path(image.png) for your scenario.

Here are the examples from the docs:

image_path("edit")                                 # => "/images/edit"
image_path("edit.png")                             # => "/images/edit.png"
image_path("icons/edit.png")                       # => "/images/icons/edit.png"
image_path("/icons/edit.png")                      # => "/icons/edit.png"
image_path("http://www.example.com/img/edit.png")  # => "http://www.example.com/img/edit.png"

Rails 3: How to get image path in Controller?

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