Add Files, Pictures, and Hyperlinks

Add File, Picture, and Hyperlink attribute types to MI.

Connect to MI

Specify a database and table.

from datetime import datetime
import pathlib
from GRANTA_MIScriptingToolkit import granta as mpy

mi = mpy.connect('http://my.server.name/mi_servicelayer', autologon=True)
db = mi.get_db(db_key='MI_Training')
tab = db.get_table('Tensile Test Data')

Create a new record

Define a path in the table from a starting folder (in this case the top level folder) using path_from(). If the path does not exist, the required folders will be created. Specify end_node to create a new Record object at the end of the path with that name.

now = datetime.now().strftime("%c")
record_name = 'STK Example 11:{}'.format(now)
record = tab.path_from(None, tree_path=['High Alloy Steels', 'AMS 6520', 'Plate', '300°F'], end_node=record_name)
record

Previous cell output:

<Record long name: STK Example 11:Wed Oct 30 16:07:16 2024>

Access the (empty) AttributeFile, AttributePicture, and AttributeHyperlink objects.

new_file = record.attributes['Test File 1']
new_pict = record.attributes['Image 2']
test_method_link = record.attributes['Standard Tension Testing Method']
test_method_link

Previous cell output:

<HyperlinkValue name: Standard Tension Testing Method, url: None>

Add files to the record

To add a file to a file attribute (or a picture to a picture attribute) there are two approaches.

Create a File or Picture object, and set the binary_data property directly with either a file buffer or bytes object. (Useful when you have a file already loaded in your script.)

file_object = mpy.File()
file_path = pathlib.Path('supporting_files/11_example_file_for_import.txt')
with open(file_path, 'rb') as file_buffer:
    file_object.binary_data = file_buffer.read()
file_object.file_name = file_path.name
file_object.description = 'This is an example file'
new_file.object = file_object
new_file

Previous cell output:

<FileValue name: Test File 1, file_name: 11_example_file_for_import.txt, description: This is an exampl...>

Use the AttributePicture.load() method to load a file from disk with a provided file name. (Useful when you have a file saved to disk).

picture = pathlib.Path('supporting_files/11_example_image_for_import.jpg')
new_pict.load(picture)
new_pict

Previous cell output:

<PictureValue name: Image 2, populated: True>

Add hyperlinks to the record

To add a hyperlink to a hyperlink attribute, set the value property. Optionally, you can also set the hyperlink_display and/or hyperlink_description properties.

test_method_link.value = 'https://www.astm.org/Standards/E8'
test_method_link.hyperlink_display = 'New'
test_method_link.hyperlink_description = 'Specification'
test_method_link

Previous cell output:

<HyperlinkValue name: Standard Tension Testing Method, url: https://www.astm.org/Standards/E8>

Set the new attributes to update, and write the changes to MI. Specifying include_binary_data_in_refresh = True means that the picture data will be included in the resulting Record object, rather than a URL reference to the picture data.

record.set_attributes([new_file, new_pict, test_method_link])
record = mi.update([record], include_binary_data_in_refresh=True)[0]

Save files attached to a record

Verify your changes by first extracting the new image from the record, then saving it to disk. You can either access the value directly or provide a file path to the save() method.

First, ensure the output directory exists. This directory will already exist if a notebook was run previously that saved a file to disk.

from pathlib import Path
output_folder = Path("./output")
output_folder.mkdir(exist_ok=True)

Next, save the picture to disk.

new_pict = record.attributes['Image 2']
from IPython.display import Image
Image(new_pict.value)

new_pict.save(path='output/11_exported_picture.jpg')