[WIP] #17 Migrate from paperclip to active storage #137

jmilljr24 · 2025-09-13T17:08:44Z

This work is part of Migrate from Paperclip to ActiveStorage (Rails 5.2 or higher) #17

What is the goal of this PR and why is this important?

This is the initial change from Paperclip to ActiveStorage.

How did you approach the change?

A temporary feature flag has been added ENV['ACTIVE_STORAGE] before the full change over is deployed to production. This change allows using active storage attachments and associated methods if the flag is set while in development and staging. This change does not yet add the migration of the data.

Anything else to add?

I could not do some user testing in multiple areas of the app because of preexisting issues or other blockers.
The following areas have been verified to work:

User Avatar
Admin CMS new workshop with attachment
Workshop log attachment
Workshop show page
Featured workshops

Not verified:

ckeditor
share workshop idea

Additional considerations - There is code related to a legacy import. There a locations were attachments are handling depending on the legacy status or attachment variants that needs further investigation. The stakeholder stated for attachments with thumbnail and header, the thumbnail attachment is the priority. Ideally they only want to upload a single image for a workshop and have the image display correctly in different areas that show the workshop.

jmilljr24 · 2025-09-14T11:50:43Z

app/models/project_user.rb

  belongs_to :user

-  scope :liaisons, -> { where(position: 1) }
+  scope :liaisons, -> { where(position: "liaison") }


This was changed for readability with @marc during debugging an enum issue with the rails 8.1 upgrade.

jmilljr24 · 2025-09-16T16:23:01Z

app/controllers/users_controller.rb

    if @user.update_with_password(pass_params)
-      sign_in(@user, :bypass => true)
-      flash[:alert] = 'Your Password was updated.'
+      bypass_sign_in(@user)


Method change with rails/devise upgrade.

jmilljr24 · 2025-09-16T16:26:32Z

app/decorators/workshop_decorator.rb

These method should probably be consolidated once the storage attachments have been migrated. The stakeholders only want to upload a single file that can display correctly in different places. legacy should be removed as it was used from a previous data transfer but we need to check what files are actually affected by that.

jmilljr24 · 2025-09-16T16:36:09Z

config/environments/development.rb

+  feature_flag_variables = File.join(Rails.root, 'config', 'feature_flag_variables.rb')
+  load(feature_flag_variables) if File.exist?(feature_flag_variables)


This was a straight forward way to load my ACTIVE_STORAGE env variable for dev and testing.

I'm not sure if/how we are loading other env variables for dev/test/staging but if we want to set ACTIVE_STORAGE somewhere else that we already use, this file change could be removed.

jmilljr24 · 2025-09-16T18:57:41Z

I ran a query on the database so see how many attachments we are actually dealing with. If I loaded the correct file(s) for the db this the what I came up with:

  attachments.file_file_name: 194
  ckeditor_assets.data_file_name: 1384
  images.file_file_name: 726
  media_files.file_file_name: 733
  reports.form_file_file_name: 5
  users.avatar_file_name: 0
  workshops.thumbnail_file_name: 395
  workshops.header_file_name: 55
------------------------------------
Grand total: 3492

maebeale · 2025-09-23T03:12:46Z

@jmilljr24 is this PR ready to be reviewed?

maebeale · 2025-09-23T03:24:50Z

app/models/attachment.rb


-  has_attached_file :file
-  validates_attachment :file, content_type: { content_type: %w(application/pdf application/msword image/gif image/jpg image/jpeg image/png) }
+  ACCEPTED_CONTENT_TYPES = %w[application/pdf application/msword image/gif image/jpeg image/png].freeze


might we want to expand the list?

here's what i ended up using in another application to support additional document spreadsheet types and avoid upload errors users were having.

for workshops, there's a need to support uploading a video, so i added video types in here too

UPLOAD_TYPES = [

Documents

'application/pdf',
'application/msword',
'application/vnd.ms-word',
'application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document',
'application/msexcel',
'application/vnd.ms-excel',
'application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet',
'application/mspowerpoint',
'application/vnd.ms-powerpoint',
'application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation',
'text/plain',

Videos

'video/mp4',
'video/quicktime',
'video/x-msvideo',
'video/x-ms-wmv',
'video/mpeg',
'video/webm',
'video/ogg',

Images (regex)

/\Aimage/.*\Z/
]

That definitely makes sense! I was trying to keep this PR as close to a one for one change, at least until all the files are migrated to avoid any confusion on what actually needs to be changes vs. improvements.

Do you think we could open a draft issue for your suggested changes until the migration is complete?

YES, love this separation of concerns

maebeale · 2025-09-23T03:26:33Z

app/models/ckeditor/picture.rb

-                    :url  => "/ckeditor_assets/pictures/:id/:style_:basename.:extension",
-                    :path => "/ckeditor_assets/pictures/:id/:style_:basename.:extension",
-                    :styles => { :content => '800>', :thumb => '118x100#' }
+  ACCEPTED_CONTENT_TYPES = ["image/jpeg", "image/png"].freeze


i think we should consider changing this to:
`/\Aimage/.*\Z/``

what do you think?

If these images are going to be displayed on the website, it probably makes sense to limit the content_type to web-safe image types.

maebeale · 2025-09-23T03:27:18Z

app/models/ckeditor/picture.rb

+    has_attached_file :data,
+      url: "/ckeditor_assets/pictures/:id/:style_:basename.:extension",
+      path: "/ckeditor_assets/pictures/:id/:style_:basename.:extension",
+      styles: {content: "800>", thumb: "118x100#"}


is there no need for listing styles with activestorage?

It's not exactly the same. Active Storage uses variants. You would use something like <%= image_tag user.avatar.variant(resize_to_limit: [100, 100]) %> in a view.

From the rails guides you can also configure specific variants per attachment by calling the variant method on yielded attachable object:

class User < ApplicationRecord has_one_attached :avatar do |attachable| attachable.variant :thumb, resize_to_limit: [100, 100] end end <%= image_tag user.avatar.variant(:thumb) %>

I think it would make sense to wait and see where we display these images decide on the variant size for each specific view.

maebeale · 2025-09-23T03:27:52Z

app/models/image.rb

-                        'workshop_default.png'
-                      )
-  validates_attachment :file, content_type: { content_type:  ["image/jpg", "image/jpeg", "image/png", "image/gif"] }
+  ACCEPTED_CONTENT_TYPES = ["image/jpeg", "image/png", "image/gif"].freeze


same comment -- how about this instead?

/\Aimage/.*\Z/

maebeale · 2025-09-23T03:29:01Z

app/models/media_file.rb

  belongs_to :workshop_log, optional: true

-  has_attached_file :file
+  FORM_FILE_CONTENT_TYPES = ["image/jpeg", "image/png",


did you remove image/jpg on purpose?

Yes! jpg is not a valid MIME type 😃

maebeale · 2025-09-23T03:30:59Z

app/models/report.rb

+    validates :form_file, content_type: FORM_FILE_CONTENT_TYPES
+  else
+    has_attached_file :form_file
+    before_save :set_has_attachament


the methoddef set_has_attachament should live in this portion of the conditional as well, right?

Ah yes, I need to alter that method because Active Storage uses a different method to check if attachment is attached.

Do you know where in the UI I can do this flow? I can write up the code change but I remember now, I left it as a TODO because I couldn't find where in the UI this was used.

I'm still digging around to figure out the UI for Forms myself (and thus :form_file)

Likely these were only edited within RailsAdmin. I'm working through rebuilding native CRUD for important models but since this wasn't on the stakeholder list, we don't have UI for it afaik.

Ok. I will add the check when active storage is being used. I will add a TODO to remind us to verify it works once available in the UI. All of my conditional checks for active storage will be revisited to rip out the the old stuff anyways so it shouldn't go unnoticed.

maebeale · 2025-09-23T03:39:47Z

Resources also have uploads

jmilljr24 · 2025-09-23T03:50:29Z

@jmilljr24 is this PR ready to be reviewed?

@maebeale It's about as far as I can take it without input from @johnpaulashenfelter on the actual migration of the files which he planned to do.

I will keep up on merge conflicts/new changes to the main branch and address your feedback in the mean time.

jmilljr24 · 2025-09-23T04:32:44Z

Resources also have uploads

It looks like Resources are associated with other models that have attachments (images) but doesn't have any attachments directly via paperclip. I could be mistaken though.

maebeale · 2025-10-13T19:06:51Z

@jmilljr24 would you rebase this branch so @johnpaulashenfelter can give it a look soon?

jmilljr24 · 2025-10-13T19:22:50Z

@jmilljr24 would you rebase this branch so @johnpaulashenfelter can give it a look soon?

Did we come to a consensus on if we want to use a feature flag, or just go straight to active storage for staging? If we don't want the feature flag, I'd rather close this PR and start fresh.

Some methods for params were commented out for an unknown reason. This add's them back and the update method works properly.

setup initial change for user avatar

fix var

revert

clean up

jmilljr24 changed the title ~~#17 Migrate from paperclip to active storage~~ [WIP] #17 Migrate from paperclip to active storage Sep 13, 2025

jmilljr24 commented Sep 14, 2025

View reviewed changes

jmilljr24 commented Sep 16, 2025

View reviewed changes

jmilljr24 marked this pull request as ready for review September 16, 2025 22:05

jmilljr24 changed the title ~~[WIP] #17 Migrate from paperclip to active storage~~ #17 Migrate from paperclip to active storage Sep 16, 2025

maebeale reviewed Sep 23, 2025

View reviewed changes

jmilljr24 changed the title ~~#17 Migrate from paperclip to active storage~~ [WIP] #17 Migrate from paperclip to active storage Sep 23, 2025

jmilljr24 added 9 commits October 26, 2025 18:51

install active storage and migrate

3b06bd0

temp fix user update

fd85f1f

Some methods for params were commented out for an unknown reason. This add's them back and the update method works properly.

add feature flag for active_storage

12c1500

setup initial change for user avatar

ignore local active storage attachments

03b8632

fix var

add feature flag to workshop attachments

d25e803

add feature flag to all models using paperclip

9ba7714

check if avatar is attached

142bfad

add active storage validations gem

435d504

add attachment validations

c36870f

jmilljr24 added 15 commits October 26, 2025 19:31

add feature flag to test config

f8ac938

fix jpeg content type

c0011a1

add check for attached avatar

285f004

update tests

cf15487

add validation gem to test group

67bde84

revert

fix merge

ab44db3

add validation tests

db9d047

move spec

b92bf76

fix rails 8.1 upgrade issues with enums

4ac2603

revert

2bd31c6

clean up

a9c036d

clean up

ignore local storage

0791a8e

update schema

866d5d3

clean up

00d9dc0

update set_has_attachment

5fb0b7f

maebeale force-pushed the migrate_from_paperclip_to_active_storage branch from 4e02a33 to 5fb0b7f Compare October 27, 2025 00:11

maebeale added 8 commits October 26, 2025 20:15

Remove duplicate gem

61a751b

Remove active storage conditionals

f497e02

Remove more active_storage env var conditionals

ddf6ada

Remove merge conflict text

518a870

Remove 'image/jpg' type bc it's invalid

d3a05d2

Make migration reversible

770177f

WIP: testing image usage

7ebcdee

Update tests to activestorage (and always show image in navbar)

2c0ea41

maebeale merged commit dd19fc1 into main Oct 27, 2025
2 checks passed

maebeale deleted the migrate_from_paperclip_to_active_storage branch October 27, 2025 02:04

		feature_flag_variables = File.join(Rails.root, 'config', 'feature_flag_variables.rb')
		load(feature_flag_variables) if File.exist?(feature_flag_variables)

[WIP] #17 Migrate from paperclip to active storage #137

[WIP] #17 Migrate from paperclip to active storage #137

Uh oh!

Conversation

jmilljr24 commented Sep 13, 2025 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

What is the goal of this PR and why is this important?

How did you approach the change?

Anything else to add?

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

jmilljr24 commented Sep 16, 2025 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

maebeale commented Sep 23, 2025 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Documents

Videos

Images (regex)

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

maebeale commented Sep 23, 2025

Uh oh!

jmilljr24 commented Sep 23, 2025

Uh oh!

jmilljr24 commented Sep 23, 2025

Uh oh!

maebeale commented Oct 13, 2025

Uh oh!

jmilljr24 commented Oct 13, 2025

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

3 participants

jmilljr24 commented Sep 13, 2025 •

edited

Loading

jmilljr24 commented Sep 16, 2025 •

edited

Loading

maebeale commented Sep 23, 2025 •

edited

Loading