Question about API: how to attach existing image to SKU?

[spiral]

Hello,

this is my first message so I hope to be in the right section. Many of my SKU's share identical images so I would like to avoid duplicate images on my server. I do everything through the API, so my idea is to:

1- create the SKU without image (with a POST to /V1/products)

2- calculate the md5sum of the associated image before uploading it via the API

3- check whether this image (renamed with its md5sum) already exists on the server

    3a- if NO: upload the image and attach it to the SKU (with a POST to /V1/products/:sku/media)

    3b- if YES: attach the image already on the server to the SKU

But I can't achieve step "3b":

- If I PUT to /V1/products/:sku with the correct image path as "file" but an empty "content" object; I receive a response 400 with error "The image content is invalid. Verify the content and try again."

- If I PUT to /V1/products/:sku with the correct image path as "file" and correct "content" (base64_encoded_data, type and name); I receive a response 200 but with an empty "media_gallery_entries": [] (so the image is not attached even if the response is 200)

- If I POST to /V1/products/:sku/media with the correct image path as "file", correct data in "content" (base64_encoded_data, type and name) and "id" as the media/:entryId for the same image in another sku; I receive a response 400 with error "The new media gallery entry failed to save."

- If I POST to /V1/products/:sku/media with the correct image path as "file", correct data in "content" (base64_encoded_data, type and name) and an empty "id"; I receive a response 200 with the id of a new media/:entryId. Unfortunately, this action creates a duplicate of the image on the server (with _x appended to the filename)

Same problem is described here: https://magento.stackexchange.com/questions/275420/magento-2-rest-api-copy-image-from-another-sku

I am using Magento 2.3.4 and I am out of ideas.

Can someone tell me how I can "reuse" an existing image and thus avoid duplicate images on the server?

Thanks for any help!

[krishanpatebfe]

Don't get too exited OP! I am just here to second this question.

I too am trying to attach existing images to existing products.

In my case we have many invisible child products without images and I want to copy the media gallery entries from the parent to the children like for like

If I PUT custom_attributes ['image','short_description','small_image','thumbnail','swatch_image']

Magento actually uses the image in the backend product search but I can't for the life of me populate the actual media gallery entries.

In my case I don't even know how to populate "content" as the GET request on the parent does not supply the "content" object in the media gallery entries.

[spiral]

I indeed got exited to see an answer but I realize you face the same problem...

I had to put my project in pause because of this stupid limitation. It just sounds crazy to me that we can't re-use an image for another SKU...

[krishanpatebfe]

I have gone for a bit of a poor work around at the moment...

Here is the rough python code so you might be able to work out what I did...

    for e in other_product['media_gallery_entries']:
        image_path = f"https://www.site_url.com/media/catalog/product{e['file']}"
        b64 = base64.b64encode(requests.get(image_path).content)
        byte_string = bytes.decode(b64)
        mime = requests.get(image_path).headers['Content-Type']
        name = e['file'].split('/')[-1]
        e.update({'content':{
            "base64_encoded_data": byte_string,
            "type": mime,
            "name": name
        }})
        e.pop('id')
        entry = {"entry":e}
        p.add_media_gallery_entry(entry) #as defined next:

    def add_media_gallery_entry(self, data_dict):
        data = json.dumps(data_dict)
        post_media_url = f"https://www.site_url.com/rest/all/V1/products/{self.sku}/media"
        auth_header = magento_auth_header()
        response = json.loads((requests.post(post_media_url,data=data,headers=auth_header)).content)
        return response

Effectively I am adding the "content" part back into the media gallery entry but...

It is a bad option for a few reasons, chiefly:

- Fetching then encoding and uploading a duplicate byte_string is very slow per image

- Its a silly waste of space having all those duplicates

But it served my purpose for now incase that helps

[rkgilchrist]

Hi

Any chance you managed to solve this issue?

Cheers

Rob

[kalichook258da]

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@spiral wrote:

I indeed got exited to see an answer but I realize you face the same problem...

I had to put my project in pause because of this jbbess stupid limitation. It just sounds crazy to me that we can't re-use an image for another SKU...

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Hi, I am facing an issue do you have time to listen to my problem please? I'll be very very thankful to you