Uploading image - data appears like this "���"�!1A"Qaq��2��B�#" and image is blank - Next.js application upload to DigitalOcean Spaces / AWS S3 - amazon-s3

Question

I am trying to let my users upload photos in a Next.js application.
I set up a remote database and I am writing to the database properly, but the images are appearing blank. I'm thinking it must be a problem with the format of the data coming in.
Here is my code on the front end in React:
async function handleProfileImageUpload(e) {
const file = e.target.files[0];
await fetch('/api/image/profileUpload', {
method: 'POST',
body: file,
'Content-Type': 'image/jpg',
})
.then(res => {
console.log('final:', res);
})
};
return (
<label htmlFor="file-upload">
<div>
<img src={profileImage} className="profile-image-lg dashboard-profile-image"/>
<div id="dashboard-image-hover" >Upload Image</div>
</div>
</label>
<input id="file-upload" type="file" onChange={handleProfileImageUpload}/>
)
The "file" I declare above (const file = e.target.files[0]) appears like this on console.log(file):
+ --------++-+-++-+------------+----++-+--7--7----7-���"�!1A"Qaq��2��B�#br���$34R����CSst���5����)!1"AQaq23B����
?�#��P�n�9?Y�
ޞ�p#��zE� Nk�2iH��l��]/P4��JJ!��(�#�r�Mң[ ���+���PD�HVǵ�f(*znP�>�HRT�!W��\J���$�p(Q�=JF6L�ܧZ�)�z,[�q��� *
�i�A\5*d!%6T���ͦ�#J{6�6��
k#��:JK�bꮘh�A�%=+E q\���H
q�Q��"�����B(��OЛL��B!Le6���(�� aY
�*zOV,8E�2��IC�H��*)#4է4.�ɬ(�<5��j!§eR27��
��s����IdR���V�u=�u2a��
... and so on. It's long.
I am uploading to Digital Ocean's Spaces object storage, which interfaces with AWS S3. Again, my application is written in Next.js and I am using a serverless environment.
Here is the API route I am sending it to ('/api/image/profileUpload.js'):
import AWS from 'aws-sdk';
export default async function handler(req, res) {
// get the image data
let image = req.body;
// create S3 instance with credentials
const s3 = new AWS.S3({
endpoint: new AWS.Endpoint('nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com'),
accessKeyId: process.env.SPACES_KEY,
secretAccessKey: process.env.SPACES_SECRET,
region: 'nyc3',
});
// create parameters for upload
const uploadParams = {
Bucket: 'oscarexpert',
Key: 'asdff',
Body: image,
ContentType: "image/jpeg",
ACL: "public-read",
};
// execute upload
s3.upload(uploadParams, (err, data) => {
if (err) return console.log('reject', err)
else return console.log('resolve', data)
})
// returning arbitrary object for now
return res.json({});
};
When I console.log(image), it shows the same garbled string that I posted above, so I know it's getting the same exact data. Maybe this needs to be further parsed?
The code above is directly from a Digital Ocean tutorial but catered to my environment. I am taking note of the "Body" parameter, which is where the garbled string is being passed in.
What I've tried:
Stringifying the "image" before passing it to the Body param
Using multer-s3 to process the request on the backend
Requesting through Postman (the image comes in with the exact same garbled format)
I've spent days on this issue. Any guidance would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

Figured it out. I wasn't encoding the image properly in my Next.js serverless backend.
First, on the front end, I made my fetch request like this. It's important to put it in the "form" format for the next step in the backend:
async function handleProfileImageUpload(e) {
const file = e.target.files[0];
const formData = new FormData();
formData.append('file', file);
// CHECK THAT THE FILE IS PROPER FORMAT (size, type, etc)
let url = false;
await fetch(`/api/image/profileUpload`, {
method: 'POST',
body: formData,
'Content-Type': 'image/jpg',
})
}
There were several components that helped me finally do this on the backend, so I am just going to post the code I ended up with. Here's the API route:
import AWS from 'aws-sdk';
import formidable from 'formidable-serverless';
import fs from 'fs';
export const config = {
api: {
bodyParser: false,
},
};
export default async (req, res) => {
// create S3 instance with credentials
const s3 = new AWS.S3({
endpoint: new AWS.Endpoint('nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com'),
accessKeyId: process.env.SPACES_KEY,
secretAccessKey: process.env.SPACES_SECRET,
region: 'nyc3',
});
// parse request to readable form
const form = new formidable.IncomingForm();
form.parse(req, async (err, fields, files) => {
// Account for parsing errors
if (err) return res.status(500);
// Read file
const file = fs.readFileSync(files.file.path);
// Upload the file
s3.upload({
// params
Bucket: process.env.SPACES_BUCKET,
ACL: "public-read",
Key: 'something',
Body: file,
ContentType: "image/jpeg",
})
.send((err, data) => {
if (err) {
console.log('err',err)
return res.status(500);
};
if (data) {
console.log('data',data)
return res.json({
url: data.Location,
});
};
});
});
};
If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment.