gatsby-transformer-cloudinary

The gatsby-transformer-cloudinary lets you upload local and remote assets to Cloudinary from within your Gatsby project. It also lets you add Gatsby Image support to sourced data on existing Cloudinary assets as well as the uploaded ones.

Upload Assets to Cloudinary

Provides two ways to upload images to Cloudinary:

1. Upload images in File nodes to Cloudinary
2. Upload remote images by their URL to Cloudinary

A CloudinaryAsset node is created for each image.

Gatsby Image Support

Adds support for gatsby-plugin-image and gatsby-image (deprecated) by adding the resolvers gatsbyImageData, fluid (deprecated) and fixed (deprecated) to the configured GraphQL Types.

No new nodes are created, the resolvers are added to the configured GraphQL Types. By default the configurable option transformTypes is set to [CloudinaryAsset], but you may add any GraphQL Type describing a Cloudinary image you have sourced from a CMS/Database or gatsby-source-cloudinary.

Live demo

Live demo (source)

DISCLAIMER: If you try running this demo’s source code on your own computer, you might face issues as the demo uses assets and transformations from the author’s Cloudinary account. Before running, please remove them or replace them with images and transformations from your own Cloudinary account.

Features

• Upload local project media assets to a secure remote CDN
• Upload remote media assets to a secure remote CDN
• Utilize media assets on Cloudinary in gatsby-image
• Use gatsby-image fluid and fixed formats on Cloudinary assets
  • Deprecated as gatsby-image is deprecated
• Use gatsby-plugin-image gatsbyImageData on Cloudinary assets
• Retrieve media files in optimized formats with responsive breakpoints
• Utilize all Cloudinary transformations including chained transformations in gatsby’s data layer

Example usage

Here’s the plugin in action to fetch a fixed asset using the useStaticQuery API of Gatsby:

import React from 'react';
import { useStaticQuery, graphql } from 'gatsby';
// Both gatsby-image and gatsby-plugin-image is supported
// gatsby-image is deprecated, use gatsby-plugin-image for new projects
import { GatsbyImage, getImage } from 'gatsby-plugin-image';
import Image from 'gatsby-image';

const SingleImage = () => {
  const data = useStaticQuery(graphql`
    query ExampleQuery {
      cloudinaryAsset(publicId: { eq: "gatsby-cloudinary/jason" }) {
        fixed(width: 300) {
          ...CloudinaryAssetFixed
        }
        gatsbyImageData(width: 300, layout: FIXED)
      }
    }
  `);

  const image = getImage(data.cloudinaryAsset);

  return (
    <>
      <GatsbyImage image={image} alt="banner" />
      <Image fixed={data.cloudinaryAsset.fixed} alt="banner" />
    </>
  );
};

export default SingleImage;

Installation

This transformer automatically creates childCloudinaryAsset nodes for File nodes created by gatsby-source-filesystem.

This transformer also allows you to pass URLs directly to Cloudinary to side-step the need to first download files to your development machine. This can be achieved by calling the createRemoteImageNode function from an onCreateNode function.

Install the plugins using either npm or yarn.

npm install --save gatsby-transformer-cloudinary gatsby-source-filesystem

yarn add gatsby-transformer-cloudinary gatsby-source-filesystem

How to use

Set up environment variables

Add the data that shouldn’t be committed to Git into .env.development:

# Find these values at https://cloudinary.com/console/
CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME=<your cloud name>
CLOUDINARY_API_KEY=<your API key>
CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET=<your API secret>

NOTE: you’ll also need to set these environment variables in your build system (i.e. Netlify).

Configure the plugin

In your gatsby-config.js, point gatsby-source-filesystem to images in your app, then set up gatsby-transformer-cloudinary with your credentials.

// Load the environment variables.
require('dotenv').config({
  path: `.env.${process.env.NODE_ENV}`,
});

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    {
      resolve: `gatsby-source-filesystem`,
      options: {
        name: `images`,
        path: `${__dirname}/src/images`,
      },
    },
    {
      resolve: 'gatsby-transformer-cloudinary',
      options: {
        cloudName: process.env.CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME,
        apiKey: process.env.CLOUDINARY_API_KEY,
        apiSecret: process.env.CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET,
        uploadFolder: 'gatsby-cloudinary',
        uploadSourceInstanceNames: ['images'],
      },
    },
  ],
};

Upload remote images

To directly upload images to Cloudinary from remote sources, you can use the createRemoteImageNode function:

// gatsby-node.js
import { createRemoteImageNode } from 'gatsby-transformer-cloudinary';

// This example assumes "Post" nodes are created in a `sourceNodes` function.
const POST_NODE_TYPE = 'Post';

export async function onCreateNode({
  node,
  actions: { createNode },
  createNodeId,
  createContentDigest,
  reporter,
}) {
  // In this example, "Post" nodes sometimes have a "cover_photo_url" that's a link to an image.
  if (node.internal.type === POST_NODE_TYPE && node.coverPhotoUrl) {
    const imageNode = await createRemoteImageNode({
      url: node.coverPhotoUrl,
      parentNode: node,
      createNode,
      createNodeId,
      createContentDigest,
      reporter,
    });

    createNodeField({ node: node, name: 'coverPhoto', value: imageNode.id });
  }
}

exports.createSchemaCustomization = (gatsbyUtils) => {
  const { actions } = gatsbyUtils;

  const PostType = `
      type Post implements Node  {
        coverPhotoUrl: String!
        coverPhoto: CloudinaryAsset @link(from: "fields.coverPhoto" by: "id")
      }
    `;

  actions.createTypes([PostType]);
};

Use images already on Cloudinary

To create GraphQL nodes for images that are already uploaded to Cloudinary, you need to create nodes containing data that describe the asset on Cloudinary.

For example, you may have sourced existing data from Cloudinary using gatsby-source-cloudinary and have CloudinaryMedia nodes that look like…

{
  cloudName: "my-amazing-blog",
  publicId: "blue-blue-blue",
  originalHeight: 360,
  originalWidth: 820,
  originalFormat: "jpg"
}

Or you might have a Post node with a cover photo already stored on Cloudinary. The data in the Post node should then look something like…

{
  title: "How to beat the pandemic blues",
  publishedAt: "2020-07-26T21:55:13.358Z",
  coverPhoto: {
    cloudName: "my-amazing-blog",
    publicId: "blue-blue-blue",
    originalHeight: 360,
    originalWidth: 820,
    originalFormat: "jpg",
    defaultBase64: "data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAYAAAAfFcSJAAAADUlEQVR42mMMXG/8HwAEwAI0Bj1bnwAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==",
    defaultTracedSVG: "data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20height%3D%229999%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%209999%209999%22%20width%3D%229999%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22m0%200h9999v9999h-9999z%22%20fill%3D%22%23f9fafb%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E",
  }
}

To add Gatsby Image support you need to to add the GraphQL Type of coverPhoto GraphQL to the transformTypes plugin option array.

For the example above the GraphQL Types are CloudinaryMedia and PostCoverPhoto.

To find the GraphQL type of the data describing the assets on Cloudinary use the GraphiQL explorer and hover over the asset key, in the second example this would be coverPhoto.

If you have used the upload functionality of this plugin, the GraphQL type of the nodes describing the uploaded files is CloudinaryAsset.

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    {
      resolve: 'gatsby-transformer-cloudinary',
      options: {
        transformTypes: [
          `CloudinaryAsset`,
          `PostCoverPhoto`,
          `CloudinaryMedia`,
        ],
      },
    },
  ],
};

The property defaultBase64 in the node above can be used by your CMS/backend API to provide precomputed or cached base64 URIs for your images. The provided string must comply with RFC 2397. This base64 image will be used unless ignoreDefaultBase64: true is set in your GraphQL query. In cases where you prefer to have an accurate base64 image with the same transformations applied as you full-size image, you should use ignoreDefaultBase64: true in your GraphQL query. When a defaultBase64 property is not supplied or ignoreDefaultBase64 is true, an API call to Cloudinary will be made when resolving your GraphQL queries to fetch the base64 image.

When providing defaultBase64 properties, it’s recommended that you set the plugin option alwaysUseDefaultBase64 to true in development. This may result in your base64 images looking different in development and production, but it will also result in much faster development build times as fewer API calls to Cloudinary will be made. The alwaysUseDefaultBase64 plugin option overrides the ignoreDefaultBase64 GraphQL query parameter and forces gatsby-transformer-cloudinary to always use defaultBase64 images when they are provided.

No API calls to Cloudinary for base64 images will be made if your GraphQL queries do not request base64 images.

The property defaultTracedSVG in the node above can be used by your CMS/backend to provide precomputed or cached SVG placeholders for your images. The provided string must comply with RFC 2397. It should also be encoded with something like JavaScript’s encodeURIComponent().

Plugin options

In gatsby-config.js the plugin accepts the following options:

The options cloudName, apiKey, and apiSecret are required if any images will be uploaded to Cloudinary during the build process. If you’re solely using images already uploaded to Cloudinary, then these options can be safely omitted.

Note: Each derived image created for a breakpoint will consume one Cloudinary transformation. Enable the useCloudinaryBreakpoints option with care. If the createDerived option is enabled, transformations will only be consumed when the images are first created. However, created images will consume Cloudinary storage space. If overwriteExisting is enabled, each image that you upload will consume one transformation each time your Gatsby cache gets cleared and the image gets re-uploaded. For this reason, it’s recommended that you keep overWriteExisting disabled and instead set the overwriteExisting parameter of createRemoteImageNode on a per-image basis when you know that an image has actually been updated.

Gatsby Plugin Image API

The plugin supports gatsby-plugin-image by adding a gatsbyImageData resolver to the configured GraphQL types.

Arguments for gatsbyImageData

transformations

An array of “raw” cloudinary transformations added to the initial transformation together with the width and height.

Type: [String]
Default:["c_fill", "g_auto", "q_auto"] or the configured defaultTransformations
Example: ["c_crop", "x_300"]

WARNING: Changing the sizing using transformations will mess with the Gatsby Image Component

chained

An array of “raw” cloudinary transformations added after the initial transformations above.

Type: [String]
Default: []
Example: ["e_grayscale","e_pixelate_faces,e_tint:100:663399:0p:white:100p"]

WARNING: Changing the sizing using chained transformations will mess with the Gatsby Image Component

placeholder

The style of the temporary image shown while the larger image is loaded.

Type: NONE, BLURRED or TRACED_SVG
Default: NONE
Example: BLURRED

NOTE: DOMINANT_COLOR is not supported

Go to the Gatsby Plugin Image Docs for more information.

height / width

Go to the Gatsby Plugin Image Docs for information on height / width.

aspectRatio

Go to the Gatsby Plugin Image Docs for information on aspectRatio.

layout

Go to the Gatsby Plugin Image Docs for information on layout.

backgroundColor

Go to the Gatsby Plugin Image Docs for information on backgroundColor.

breakpoints

Go to the Gatsby Plugin Image Docs for information on breakpoints.

outputPixelDensities

Go to the Gatsby Plugin Image Docs for information on outputPixelDensities.

sizes

Go to the Gatsby Plugin Image Docs for information on sizes.

Gatsby Image API (Deprecated)

This plugin can support both the fixed and fluid formats for gatsby-image.

Both fixed and fluid accept arguments. All arguments are optional.

WARNING: Support for gatsby-image will be removed in the near future, please upgrade to gatsby-plugin-image.

Arguments for both fixed and fluid

Arguments for fixed

Arguments for fluid

A note about aspect ratios

You’re able to change the aspect ratio of images by supplying the aspect ratio parameter in the transformations argument.

NOTE: The aspect ratio must be supplied in the transformations array. It will not be picked up from the chained argument.

Gatsby Image Fragments

The fragments below can be used when querying your Cloudinary assets:

• CloudinaryAssetFluid
• CloudinaryAssetFluid_noBase64
• CloudinaryAssetFluid_tracedSVG
• CloudinaryAssetFixed
• CloudinaryAssetFixed_noBase64
• CloudinaryAssetFixed_tracedSVG

Avoiding stretched images using the fluid type

As mentioned previously, images using the fluid type are stretched to match the container’s width and height. In the case where the image’s width or height is smaller than the available viewport, the image will stretch to match the container, potentially leading to unwanted problems and worsened image quality.

The CloudinaryAssetFluidLimitPresentationSize fragment can be used to to gatsby-image not to stretch an image larger than its maximum dimensions regardless of the size of its container:

query {
  file(name: { eq: "avatar" }) {
    childCloudinaryAsset {
      fluid {
        ...CloudinaryAssetFluid
        ...CloudinaryAssetFluidLimitPresentationSize
      }
    }
  }
}

Manual Usage (gatsby-image only)

It’s also possible to manually create gatsby-image-friendly fixed and fluid objects by importing helper functions from the transformer.

This is an advanced use case — if possible, try not to do this when Gatsby’s data layer is an option. This is intended for cases where assets are already on Cloudinary and moving them to the Gatsby project would be too time-intensive to be reasonable.

NOTE: This approach is async, which means you’ll end up with content jumping unless you manually account for the image area. You’ve been warned.

Manually creating fluid images

import React from 'react';
import Image from 'gatsby-image';
import { getFluidImageObject } from 'gatsby-transformer-cloudinary/api';

export default () => {
  const [fluid, setFluid] = useState(undefined);

  useEffect(() => {
    getFluidImageObject({
      public_id: 'gatsby-cloudinary/jason',
      cloudName: 'jlengstorf',
      originalHeight: 3024,
      originalWidth: 4032,
      breakpoints: [200, 400, 600, 800],
      transformations: ['ar_16:10', 'c_fill'],
      chained: ['e_grayscale,e_tint:100:663399:0p:white:100p', 't_lwj'],
    }).then((result) => setFluid(result));
  }, []);

  return fluid ? <Image fluid={fluid} alt="Jason" /> : <p>loading...</p>;
};

Manually creating fixed images

import React from 'react';
import Image from 'gatsby-image';
import { getFixedImageObject } from 'gatsby-transformer-cloudinary/api';

export default () => {
  const [fixed, setFixed] = useState(undefined);

  useEffect(() => {
    getFixedImageObject({
      public_id: 'gatsby-cloudinary/jason',
      cloudName: 'jlengstorf',
      originalHeight: 3024,
      originalWidth: 4032,
    }).then((result) => setFixed(result));
  }, []);

  return fixed ? <Image fixed={fixed} alt="Jason" /> : <p>loading...</p>;
};

Running Tests

Run the tests once:

yarn workspace gatsby-transformer-cloudinary test

Run the tests in watch mode:

yarn workspace gatsby-transformer-cloudinary test:watch

Other Resources

• Cloudinary image transformation reference
• Try the gatsby-source-cloudinary plugin to source media files into Gatsby file nodes
• Using Cloudinary image service for media optimization
• Learn how this plugin was built with Jason Lengstorf

Contribute

Want to contribute to make this tool even better? Feel free to send in issues and pull requests on feature requests, fixes, bugs, typos, performance lapses or any other challenge faced with using this tool.

License

MIT