Paperclip + S3: Migrating existing files from one :path format to another

Question

I have a model with a avatar paperclip attach. It has now a plain standard path

has_attached_file :avatar,
  :path => \"/:id-:style-:filename\"
<         


        

Answer 1

If you want to work only with Paperclip and you are not worried about re-uploading I followed another approach.

Let's suppose you have the following:

class User
   has_attached_file :image, path: "/:old_path/:filename"
   ...
end

and you want to migrate to the new path: "/:new_path/:filename"

my suggestion is to create a FakeUser with the old path and change it in the User model.

class FakeUser
   self.table_name = :users
   has_attached_file :image, path: "/:old_path/:filename"
   ...
end

class User
   has_attached_file :image, path: "/:new_path/:filename"
   ...
end

You can now write the following migration:

FakeUser.find_each do |fake_user|
   User.find(fake_user.id).update(image: fake_user.image)
   fake_user.image.destroy
end

You can then delete the FakeUser model when the migration is finished.

By the way, this approach will work perfectly also to migrate from local filesystem to S3 or vice-versa.