Example: Upload and Download Files with Plotly Dash

This example demonstrates uploading and downloading files to and from a Plotly Dash app. This example simply saves the files to disk and serves them back to user, but if you want to process uploaded files, try adapting the save_file() function in this example.

Python Source Code

import base64
import os
from urllib.parse import quote as urlquote

from flask import Flask, send_from_directory
import dash
import dash_core_components as dcc
import dash_html_components as html
from dash.dependencies import Input, Output


UPLOAD_DIRECTORY = "/project/app_uploaded_files"

if not os.path.exists(UPLOAD_DIRECTORY):
    os.makedirs(UPLOAD_DIRECTORY)


# Normally, Dash creates its own Flask server internally. By creating our own,
# we can create a route for downloading files directly:
server = Flask(__name__)
app = dash.Dash(server=server)


@server.route("/download/<path:path>")
def download(path):
    """Serve a file from the upload directory."""
    return send_from_directory(UPLOAD_DIRECTORY, path, as_attachment=True)


app.layout = html.Div(
    [
        html.H1("File Browser"),
        html.H2("Upload"),
        dcc.Upload(
            id="upload-data",
            children=html.Div(["Drag and drop or click to select a file to upload."]),
            style={
                "width": "100%",
                "height": "60px",
                "lineHeight": "60px",
                "borderWidth": "1px",
                "borderStyle": "dashed",
                "borderRadius": "5px",
                "textAlign": "center",
                "margin": "10px",
            },
            multiple=True,
        ),
        html.H2("File List"),
        html.Ul(id="file-list"),
    ],
    style={"max-width": "500px"},
)


def save_file(name, content):
    """Decode and store a file uploaded with Plotly Dash."""
    data = content.encode("utf8").split(b";base64,")[1]
    with open(os.path.join(UPLOAD_DIRECTORY, name), "wb") as fp:
        fp.write(base64.decodebytes(data))


def uploaded_files():
    """List the files in the upload directory."""
    files = []
    for filename in os.listdir(UPLOAD_DIRECTORY):
        path = os.path.join(UPLOAD_DIRECTORY, filename)
        if os.path.isfile(path):
            files.append(filename)
    return files


def file_download_link(filename):
    """Create a Plotly Dash 'A' element that downloads a file from the app."""
    location = "/download/{}".format(urlquote(filename))
    return html.A(filename, href=location)


@app.callback(
    Output("file-list", "children"),
    [Input("upload-data", "filename"), Input("upload-data", "contents")],
)
def update_output(uploaded_filenames, uploaded_file_contents):
    """Save uploaded files and regenerate the file list."""

    if uploaded_filenames is not None and uploaded_file_contents is not None:
        for name, data in zip(uploaded_filenames, uploaded_file_contents):
            save_file(name, data)

    files = uploaded_files()
    if len(files) == 0:
        return [html.Li("No files yet!")]
    else:
        return [html.Li(file_download_link(filename)) for filename in files]


if __name__ == "__main__":
    app.run_server(debug=True, port=8888)

Deployment

Assuming that you store this file as myapp.py to /project/myappdirectory in your project workspace, the settings you need to deploy this in Faculty are:

  • Working Directory: /project/myappdirectory

  • Python Module: myapp

  • Python Object: server (the name of the Flask object used by Dash)

You can also follow the instructions in Developing the application to run the app in development mode.

Usage

The app provides a widget to upload files, and maintains a list of download links for previously uploaded files:

../../../_images/dash_file_upload_download.png

Only files that fit in memory on the server you run your app on will work, however for most applications this will not be a problem.