How to obtain a file object from a variable or from http URL without actually creating a file?

Question

I want to manipulate a downloaded PDF using PyPDF and for that, I need a file object.

I use GAE to host my Python app, so I cannot actually write the file to disk.

Is there any way to obtain the file object from URL or from a variable that contains the file contents?

TIA.

Answer 1

Most tools (including urllib) already give you a file-like, but if you need true random access then you'll need to create a StringIO.StringIO and read the data into it.

Answer 2

In GAE you can use the blobstore to read, write file data and to upload and download files. And you can use the File API:

Example :

_file = files.blobstore.create(mime_type=mimetype, _blobinfo_uploaded_filename='test')
with files.open(_file, 'a') as f :                                                      
    f.write(somedata)                                                         
files.finalize(_file)