Resolving the Issue of Image Not Reloading from Supabase in Angular Applications

Discover effective solutions for the `image not reloading` issue in your Angular app when working with Supabase storage. Learn how to implement changes to ensure images update seamlessly.
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Introduction

One of the common challenges developers face when building applications with Angular and Supabase is ensuring that images reload correctly after updates. If you've encountered a situation where your image element doesn't reflect the newly uploaded photo but instead defaults to a placeholder color, you're not alone.

In this guide, we will explore this issue and provide a practical solution to ensure your images are displayed correctly after updates.

The Problem: Image Not Reloading

In Angular applications that utilize Supabase for storage, you might find that even though the URL for an updated image is properly generated, the image element does not display the new image. Instead, it falls back to a background color, leading to confusion and a poor user experience.

What’s Happening?

Old URL Reference: The <img> element continues to reference the old URL, which has already been invalidated by the changes in storage.

Updating Issue: After an image upload, the element attempts to load a new URL that isn’t formatted correctly, leading to errors.

Network Errors: Attempting to access the new image URL directly reveals a potential authorization layer preventing access.

Solution: Ensure Proper URL Updates

The key to resolving this issue lies within the logic of how the image URLs are updated in your Angular code. Let’s walk through the steps you need to implement to ensure the image updates correctly.

Step 1: Modify the Download Function

Instead of directly setting the categoryPhoto attribute with the new public URL, we should modify the downloadCategoryPhotoFromSupabase function to include a subscription that confirms the public URL is set only after it is confirmed available.

Here’s the improved function:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Explanation of the Changes

Subscribe to Data: The use of .subscribe() ensures that we wait for the new URL to be available before updating the categoryPhoto. This sidesteps any timing issues where the image might attempt to reference an outdated URL.

Reactive Update: This approach is more inline with Angular's reactive programming model, allowing the <img> element to properly reflect the latest data state.

Confirming Successful Changes

After implementing this function, ensure to test your application thoroughly:

Create a new category and upload an image.

Update an existing category’s photo.

Verify that the image displays correctly without manual page reloads.

Conclusion

By following the steps outlined in this post, you can effectively troubleshoot and fix the issue of images not reloading from Supabase in your Angular application. Keeping your application responsive and user-friendly is key, and understanding the flow of data updates is essential.

Remember, issues like these are common in development, and adapting your code to handle asynchronous behavior properly can save a lot of time and frustration. Happy coding!