How to Fix TypeError: expected string or bytes-like object When Uploading JSON Arrays to IPFS

Learn how to fix the common error when trying to upload JSON arrays to IPFS, ensuring your data is uploaded successfully without encountering issues.
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Uploading JSON Arrays to IPFS: Fixing Common Errors

If you’re exploring the world of decentralized storage through IPFS (InterPlanetary File System), you might have stumbled upon an annoying error message: TypeError: expected string or bytes-like object. This error can occur when you attempt to upload JSON arrays, and it usually indicates an issue with the data type being sent in your request.

In this guide, we will walk through the steps to upload JSON data to IPFS correctly and solve the aforementioned error, ensuring your files are uploaded efficiently without hiccups.

Understanding the Problem

You want to upload a list of employee details in the form of a JSON array to IPFS. However, when running your modified code, you encounter a TypeError. This usually happens because the requests library expects file-like objects (as strings or byte sequences) when dealing with multipart uploads.

Here’s a simplified version of your original attempt to upload JSON data:

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

The above code fails because you’re trying to send a dictionary (example) directly without converting it into a string format that the files argument can accept.

The Correct Approach

To resolve this issue, you need to ensure that the data you are sending complies with the expected format. Specifically, you’ll want to convert your JSON array into a properly formatted string. Here’s how you can do that:

Step 1: Convert JSON to String

Step 2: Modify Your Code

Here’s the corrected version of your code with the necessary modifications:

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

Key Changes:

Tuple Usage: Each value in the files dictionary is a tuple. This is crucial because the requests library expects a file name and a content type.

Testing the Code

Once you run the modified code, you should see successful debugging information, including the Hash of your uploaded content. This hash can be used to retrieve the block later, confirming that your upload was successful and free from errors.

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

Conclusion

By following the outlined steps and ensuring your JSON data is converted correctly to string format, you can bypass the TypeError and successfully upload multiple data items to IPFS.

Feel free to experiment with different types of data or structures, and happy coding in the decentralized realm of IPFS!