The BlobInfo Class

Every Blobstore value has a corresponding entity in the datastore containing information about the blob, such as its filename and size. The BlobInfo class provides a db.Model-like interface to this read-only entity. You can retrieve BlobInfo objects using a Blobstore key.

BlobInfo is provided by the google.appengine.ext.blobstore module.

• Introduction
• Class methods:
  • BlobInfo.all()
  • BlobInfo.get()
  • BlobInfo.gql()
  • BlobInfo.kind()
  • BlobInfo.properties()
• Instance methods:
  • delete()
  • key()
  • open()
• Instance properties:
  • content_type
  • creation
  • filename
  • size

Introduction

Every Blobstore value has a corresponding BlobInfo entity in the datastore that contains information about the blob, such as its filename and size. The Blobstore creates this entity when the blob is uploaded. Unlike other datastore entities, BlobInfo entities are read-only, and cannot be modified by the application.

An app can query for BlobInfo entities by their properties, and can fetch an entity using the Blobstore key. Note that a query over multiple properties on a BlobInfo entity may require a custom index, just as with other entities.

When a blob is uploaded, the Blobstore passes the metadata to the upload handler in the headers of the MIME part for the file. The upload handler can parse this information into a BlobInfo object without calling the datastore using the parse_blob_info() function. If you're using the webapp application framework, you can use the BlobstoreUploadHandler for more convenient parsing of this information.

Class Methods

The BlobInfo class has the following class methods:

BlobInfo.all()

Returns a Query object that represents all BlobInfo entities for the app. Methods on the Query object can apply filters and sort orders to the query before it is executed. See Query for more information.

BlobInfo.get(blob_keys)

Gets the BlobInfo object (or objects) for the given BlobKey objects.

Arguments:

blob_keys

A BlobKey value, or a list of BlobKey values.

If given a single BlobKey, returns a BlobInfo object, or None if there is no Blobstore value for that key. If given a list of BlobKey values, returns a list with one value for each given key, each of which is either a BlobKey or None.

BlobInfo.gql(query_string, *args, **kwds)

Performs a GQL query over BlobInfo entities.

Arguments:

query_string

The part of the GQL query following SELECT * FROM model (which is implied by using this class method).

*args

Positional parameter bindings, similar to the GqlQuery constructor.

**kwds

Keyword parameter bindings, similar to the GqlQuery constructor.

The return value is a GqlQuery object, which can be used to access the results.

BlobInfo.kind()

Returns the kind name used for BlobInfo entities.

BlobInfo.properties()

Returns a dictionary of all of the properties defined for BlobInfo entities.

Instance Methods

A BlobInfo instance has the following methods:

delete()

Deletes the Blobstore value represented by this BlobInfo object, and also deletes the corresponding BlobInfo entity from the datastore.

Deleting a Blobstore value occurs separately from datastore transactions. If you call this method during a datastore transaction, it takes effect immediately, regardless of whether the transaction commits successfully or is retried.

key()

Returns the BlobKey of the Blobstore value described by this BlobInfo.

open()

Returns a BlobReader for this blob.

Instance Properties

A BlobInfo instance has several properties. These properties are present on the BlobInfo datastore entity, and can be the subject of queries via the BlobInfo.all() and BlobInfo.gql() class methods.

content_type

The MIME content type of the Blobstore value, as provided by the client that uploaded the value. A string.

creation

The date and time the Blobstore value was created. A datetime value.

filename

The filename of the Blobstore value, as provided by the client that uploaded the value. A string.

size

The size of the Blobstore value, as a number of bytes. An integer.