How to set up file upload functionality for an API on RapidAPI?

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1

Hey everyone! I’m trying to figure out how to get file uploads working with RapidAPI. I’ve built an API with FastAPI that accepts a Word document and returns its text. Although it’s running smoothly on Heroku, integrating it with RapidAPI has me a bit confused.

The API exposes an endpoint at /readdocument for handling file uploads. However, RapidAPI only seems to offer options for JSON or data payloads, and I haven’t found a way to include files. Has anyone faced this issue before?

Here is an alternative version of my API for clarity:

from fastapi import FastAPI, UploadFile, File
import docx
from io import BytesIO

app = FastAPI()

@app.post('/process_doc')
async def process_doc(doc: UploadFile = File(...)):
    document = docx.Document(BytesIO(await doc.read()))
    content = [paragraph.text for paragraph in document.paragraphs]
    return '\n'.join(content)

Any ideas or suggestions on how I can get file uploads to work properly with RapidAPI? Thanks for your help!

2

I’ve encountered a similar challenge with RapidAPI and file uploads. Here’s what worked for me:

Instead of using UploadFile, modify your endpoint to accept a string parameter for the base64-encoded file content. On the client side, you’ll need to convert the file to base64 before sending it.

Your updated FastAPI code might look something like this:

import base64
from fastapi import FastAPI
import docx
from io import BytesIO

app = FastAPI()

@app.post('/process_doc')
async def process_doc(doc_base64: str):
    doc_bytes = base64.b64decode(doc_base64)
    document = docx.Document(BytesIO(doc_bytes))
    content = [paragraph.text for paragraph in document.paragraphs]
    return {'text': '\n'.join(content)}

This approach allows you to work within RapidAPI’s limitations while still processing file uploads effectively. Just remember to handle potential encoding/decoding errors gracefully.

3

hey lucasg, i’ve dealt with this before. rapidapi doesn’t support direct file uploads, but you can work around it by base64 encoding the file content. modify your endpoint to accept a base64 string instead of a file upload. then decode it on your server before processing. hope this helps!

4

I’ve worked with RapidAPI integration before, and here’s a solution that might work for you. Instead of direct file uploads, you can use a two-step process:

  1. Create an endpoint that generates a pre-signed URL for file upload.
  2. Use that URL to upload the file directly to your storage (e.g., S3).

Your API would then process the file from the storage location. This approach bypasses RapidAPI’s limitations on file uploads while still allowing you to handle document processing through your API.

You’d need to modify your FastAPI code to work with the storage service and update your client-side code to handle the two-step upload process. It’s a bit more complex, but it’s a robust solution that scales well.