REST views (json) should output absolute image URLs

Thanks for reporting an issue!

Can you expand the issue summary to list reasons why we should do this?

Thanks!

This issue is a bit tricky as well. Just imagine if you GET some value and POST it afterwards ... suddenly the value stored in the DB would be changed when we rewrite absolute paths.

I think the problem dawehner mentions is that REST on entities isn't read-only - reading a resource via GET and then writing the same data back via POST should be (effectively) idempotent. The feeds didn't suffer the same difficulty because they're a rendered presentation, rather than a copy of the raw data.

However, this isn't about an entity and rather about a view. REST Views are a read-only presentation (it goes through field formatters, and there's no endpoint to write back to anyway), so that shouldn't be an issue.

Then again, this is solvable in contrib, and I'm not sure it takes a serializer; merely an extra field formatter that extends the StringFormatter / TextDefaultFormatter classes to add its processing step...

@cburschka
Thank you for summarizing my thoughts!

Are you sure about the read-only aspect of REST views? In many applications people will fetch a list of things, but then update a single item of this collection.

On top of that I'm wondering whether the problem of absolute paths does also exist of single item resources.

Are you sure about the read-only aspect of REST views? In many applications people will fetch a list of things, but then update a single item of this collection.

Oh, I was thinking of the data_field row type, which generates a non-reversible presentation.

I just realized the original question may indeed be about the data_entity row type, though - that would explain why a field formatter wouldn't help.

First, let's fix the title.

Agreed with @dawehner's concerns, which were further clarified by @cburschkain #8.

#88183: Relative URLs in feeds should be converted to absolute ones is not the same problem. Feeds are to be parsed by generic clients (feed readers on the web, my phone, your desktop, and so on). And in the end, RSS feeds are just repackaged HTML.

On top of their concerns, I can add several more:

1. same content and API available via multiple domains
2. files are often served from a separate domain, that is more often prone to changes (e.g. changing a CDN provider), that's why there is even an explicit setting for it: $settings['file_public_base_url']
3. there is no spec for API responses, but there is one for RSS responses — quoting from the IS from that issue: The RSS specification specifies that all links should be absolute.

Therefore I think it's fair to say this is working as designed.

Solution to show absolute images path with rest api views:

1. add a new view, configure it, but do not add image field to output
2. add relationship, named "FieldTitle (field_[ImageFieldName]:target_id)"
3. add new field, named: URI
FIELD SETTINGS:
- at the top, choose at the realitionship to the filed_ImageFieldName
- check "Display the file download URI"

Worked for me #13

Nice workaround .. Thank you @szultino

Thanks @Szultino! That workaround was excellent for images (I'm on D9).

I needed to get full urls on a link field, too, but I couldn't get absolute urls without including the href markup, which I didn't want for my export. I ended up using this module and it worked for both image and link fields.

In case this is helpful to others, my link field allows both internal and external links, so I used the following twig in my rewrite results (using the views_base_url module):

{% if 'http' in field_link|render|render %}
{{ field_link }}
{% else %}
{{ base_url }}{{ field_link }}
{% endif %}

Thank you @Szultino. #13 the best solution.

#13 comes to handy. Thanks

@Ruslan Piskarov
@afagioli
@capysara
Can you help me? I am facing the same problem and I was able to add the URI attribute to the return object from API but it does have a value how I can add an image in the new URL Field

#13 works, Nice workaround

9.3.3 broke this for me and image URIs started displaying relatively. So I rewrote the field results in the rest view with custom text - domain name and uri token - and forced the fields to render absolutely. Doubt this will help everyone and expect there is a better solution, but got me over the hump and my front-facing sites have images again.

@nick.moahan yep, the awesome solution from #13 broke for me too after upgrading from 9.2.20 to 9.4.3. For the time being I've modified a file at docroot/core/modules/file/src/Plugin/Field/FieldFormatter/FileUriFormatter.php.

Before:
$value = $this->fileUrlGenerator->generateString($value);

After:
$value = $this->fileUrlGenerator->generateAbsoluteString($value);

Prior to 9.3.0 the viewValue function in this file, looked like this:

  protected function viewValue(FieldItemInterface $item) {
    $value = $item->value;
    if ($this->getSetting('file_download_path')) {
      // @todo Wrap in file_url_transform_relative(). This is currently
      // impossible. See BaseFieldFileFormatterBase::viewElements(). Fix in
      // https://www.drupal.org/node/2646744.
      $value = file_create_url($value);
    }
    return $value;
  }

You can read about file_create_url being deprecated here https://www.drupal.org/node/2940031, which was introduced in version: 9.3.0.

This is still a temporary workaround and I think the next solution is to create a custom file formatter that's selectable from the view.

Hope this helps!

I read through this thread and still need help. I have a typical Body(Ckeditor WYSWIG field that has images and text links) and need the REST export of that content to have absolute URLs.

This looked like a perfect fit but couldn't get it to work drupal.org/project/rest_absolute_urls I have a feeling it stopped working in 9.x

I think #13 applies only I think to individual fields, not WYSWIG fields.

I don't really want to use a text format with drupal.org/project/rel_to_abs because then my pages will be absolute URLs, when I only want them converted to absolute in REST exports.

Maybe if in only the view REST Export I could override the text format?

#24:
If you want to convert rel to abs in fullhtml without use outer module, in views in the field settings choose "Override the output of this field with custom text", and write this kind of twig code:

{{ field_FIELDNAME|replace({'"/files/': '"https://DOMIAN/files/'})|raw }}

The "raw" command at the end makes some errors (for example with media output), but I'm searching the perfect solutions...

Updating with a related issue link to a change that provides an absolute URL option at the image URL field formatter level. This may be a viable solution?
https://www.drupal.org/project/drupal/issues/2811043