starr-philproperties/controllers/admin/documentation/assets.md

Assets API

Base path: /api/admin/assets Controller: controllers/admin/assets.controller.js Storage: Chibisafe (CDN) + PostgreSQL via Sequelize

---

Prerequisites

Multer setup

The upload and update-thumbnail endpoints use multer.fields() — make sure your route file is configured with memoryStorage:

const multer = require("multer");
const upload = multer({ storage: multer.memoryStorage() });

// Upload
router.post("/",               upload.fields([{ name: "file", maxCount: 1 }, { name: "thumbnail", maxCount: 1 }]), assetsCtrl.uploadAsset);

// Update thumbnail
router.patch("/:assetId/thumbnail", upload.fields([{ name: "thumbnail", maxCount: 1 }]), assetsCtrl.updateThumbnail);

Environment variables

CHIBISAFE_BASE_URL=https://cdn.yourdomain.com
CHIBISAFE_API_KEY=your-api-key

CHIBISAFE_ALBUM_AVATARS=uuid
CHIBISAFE_ALBUM_VIDEOS=uuid
CHIBISAFE_ALBUM_DOCUMENTS=uuid
CHIBISAFE_ALBUM_THUMBNAILS=uuid
CHIBISAFE_ALBUM_ARCHIVED=uuid

Album routing

owner_type is the single source of truth for which Chibisafe album a file lands in:

owner_type	Chibisafe album	Intended use
avatar	avatars	Profile pictures
video	videos	Course / content videos
document	documents	PDF, DOCX, PPT, TXT, etc.
thumbnail	thumbnails	Set automatically — do not send manually
image	(none)	General-purpose images
anything else	(none)	Unclassified

---

Endpoints

---

GET /

List all assets (paginated).

Query params

Param	Required	Description
page	optional	Page number. Default: 1
limit	optional	Items per page. Default: 10, max: 1000
filters	optional	JSON array of filter objects passed to buildQuery
sort	optional	JSON array of sort objects passed to buildQuery

Response 200

{
  "message": "Assets retrieved.",
  "data": [...],
  "pagination": {
    "page": 1,
    "limit": 10,
    "totalRecords": 42,
    "totalPages": 5,
    "hasPrevPage": false,
    "hasNextPage": true
  },
  "attributes": [...]
}

Soft-deleted assets are excluded automatically. Hidden fields (per adminExclude): checksum, storage_bucket, storage_key, deletedBy.

---

GET /:assetId

Get a single asset by primary key.

URL params

Param	Required	Description
assetId	required	Asset primary key (BIGINT)

Responses

Status	Description
200	{ data: asset }
400	Invalid asset ID
404	Asset not found
500	Internal server error

---

POST /

Upload a new asset.

Content-Type: multipart/form-data

File fields

Field	Required	Description
file	required	The main asset (image, video, document, etc.)
thumbnail	required if video	Cover image for the video. Ignored for non-video files.

Text fields

Field	Required	Default	Description
uploadedBy	required	—	User ID (BIGINT) of the uploader
storage_provider	required	—	chibisafe | local | s3 | gcs | cloudinary
owner_type	optional	null	Determines album routing: avatar, video, document, image
owner_id	optional	null	ID of the owning entity (course ID, user ID, etc.)
display_name	optional	original filename	Human-readable name shown in the UI
description	optional	null	Free-text description
is_public	optional	false	true | false
access_level	optional	private	public | private | restricted
storage_bucket	optional	null	Bucket name (S3 / GCS only)
storage_key	optional	null	Override storage key. Auto-set for Chibisafe (uses Chibisafe file UUID).
file_url	conditional	—	Required when storage_provider is not local or chibisafe
width	optional (non-video)	null	Image/document width in px. Ignored for videos.
height	optional (non-video)	null	Image/document height in px. Ignored for videos.

Auto-extracted fields (videos only — do not send)

These are extracted server-side via ffprobe and will override anything the client sends:

Field	Source	Example
width	ffprobe	1920
height	ffprobe	1080
resolution	derived	1080p, 720p, 4K
duration	ffprobe	281.49 (seconds)
frame_rate	ffprobe	23.976 (fps)
bitrate	ffprobe	447933 (bps)
video_codec	ffprobe	H.264, H.265, AV1, VP9
audio_codec	ffprobe	AAC, MP3, Opus
thumbnail_url	Chibisafe upload	CDN URL of the uploaded thumbnail

Transaction strategy

Phase 1 (no DB connection held — slow I/O):
  ├─ Validate inputs
  ├─ Upload main file to Chibisafe   → track UUID for rollback
  ├─ Run ffprobe on video buffer     → extract metadata
  └─ Upload thumbnail to Chibisafe  → track UUID for rollback

Phase 2 (transaction open ~milliseconds):
  └─ Asset.create()  →  commit

On Phase 2 failure:
  └─ rollback DB  +  deleteFile() all tracked Chibisafe UUIDs

Responses

Status	Description
201	{ data: asset } — fully populated asset record
400	Missing file, uploadedBy, or thumbnail (for videos); buffer issues
500	DB or Chibisafe error — Chibisafe uploads are cleaned up automatically

Example — video upload (Postman)

POST /api/admin/assets
Content-Type: multipart/form-data

file           → (attach .mp4)
thumbnail      → (attach .jpg)
uploadedBy     → 1
storage_provider → chibisafe
owner_type     → video
owner_id       → 10
display_name   → Intro to React
is_public      → true
access_level   → public

Example — avatar upload

POST /api/admin/assets
Content-Type: multipart/form-data

file             → (attach .jpg)
uploadedBy       → 1
storage_provider → chibisafe
owner_type       → avatar
owner_id         → 5

Example — document upload

POST /api/admin/assets
Content-Type: multipart/form-data

file             → (attach .pdf)
uploadedBy       → 1
storage_provider → chibisafe
owner_type       → document
owner_id         → 7
display_name     → Module 1 Handout

---

PATCH /:assetId/thumbnail

Replace the thumbnail image of an existing asset by uploading a new file.

Content-Type: multipart/form-data

URL params

Param	Required	Description
assetId	required	Asset primary key

File field

Field	Required	Description
thumbnail	required	New thumbnail image file

How it works

1. Uploads the new thumbnail to Chibisafe (thumbnails album).
2. Updates thumbnail_url on the asset record.
3. Deletes the old thumbnail from Chibisafe (best-effort — non-fatal if it fails).

Note: Old thumbnail cleanup requires a thumbnail_storage_key column on the Asset model to track the previous Chibisafe file UUID. Without it, the old thumbnail remains on Chibisafe but the DB record is updated correctly.

Responses

Status	Description
200	{ data: asset } — updated asset with new thumbnail_url
400	No thumbnail file attached
404	Asset not found
500	Internal server error

---

PUT /:assetId

Update asset metadata. File uploads are blocked on this endpoint.

Content-Type: application/json

URL params

Param	Required	Description
assetId	required	Asset primary key

Body — all fields optional, send only what changes

Field	Type	Description
display_name	string	New display name
description	string	New description
owner_type	string	New owner type
owner_id	number	New owner entity ID
is_public	boolean	true | false
access_level	string	public | private | restricted
thumbnail_url	string	Manually replace thumbnail URL (use PATCH /thumbnail to upload a file instead)
width	number	Width in px. Re-derives resolution automatically.
height	number	Height in px. Re-derives resolution automatically.
duration	number	Duration in seconds
frame_rate	number	fps
bitrate	number	bps
video_codec	string	e.g. H.264
audio_codec	string	e.g. AAC

Responses

Status	Description
200	{ data: asset }
400	Invalid ID or file attached to request
404	Asset not found
500	Internal server error

---

DELETE /:assetId

Soft-delete a single asset.

Sets deletedAt on the DB record and moves the file to the archived album on Chibisafe (best-effort — non-fatal if Chibisafe is unavailable).

Content-Type: application/json

URL params

Param	Required	Description
assetId	required	Asset primary key

Body

Field	Required	Description
deletedBy	optional	User ID performing the delete

Responses

Status	Description
200	Asset deleted
400	Invalid asset ID
404	Asset not found
500	Internal server error

---

DELETE /bulk

Soft-delete multiple assets in one call.

All matching Chibisafe files are moved to the archived album in a single API call.

Content-Type: application/json

Body

Field	Required	Description
ids	required	Non-empty array of asset IDs: [1, 2, 3]
deletedBy	optional	User ID performing the delete

Responses

Status	Description
200	N asset(s) deleted
400	ids missing or empty
500	Internal server error

---

POST /:assetId/restore

Restore a soft-deleted asset.

Clears deletedAt and deletedBy on the DB record, then moves the file on Chibisafe from the archived album back to its home album based on owner_type:

owner_type	Moved back to
video	videos album
avatar	avatars album
document	documents album
image / anything else	no move (no dedicated album)

The Chibisafe move is best-effort — a failed move will not block or roll back the DB restore.

URL params

Param	Required	Description
assetId	required	Asset primary key (must be soft-deleted)

Body: none required.

Responses

Status	Description
200	{ data: asset } — Asset restored
404	Asset not found or not deleted
500	Internal server error

---

Response shape

All responses use R.success / R.error from response.util:

// success
{
  "message": "Asset uploaded.",
  "data": { ... }
}

// error
{
  "message": "Asset not found.",
  "status": 404
}

---

Related files

File	Purpose
models/assets/assets.mdl.js	Sequelize model
models/assets/assets.attributes.js	Exclude sets, paginate config
services/chibisafe.service.js	Chibisafe API wrapper (upload, delete, archive, album)
services/ffprobe.service.js	ffprobe metadata extraction for videos
utils/paginate.util.js	Paginated findAndCountAll used by getAssets
utils/response.util.js	R.success / R.error response helpers