send_file from URL?

hi -

i have a URL of an image (on cloud storage) and I want to send the file from a request. I do not want to redirect because I want to conceal the cloud URL. So I want to do something like:

send_file "http://www…"

but it cannot find the file:

Cannot read file http://…

but, the url is valid, I can see the file no problem. Is there a way to send a file from an external source? I want to avoid downloading the file to my server then resending it to the client.

Thanks for any help, Dino

dino d. wrote:

send_file "http://www…"

but it cannot find the file:

Cannot read file http://…

but, the url is valid, I can see the file no problem. Is there a way to send a file from an external source? I want to avoid downloading the file to my server then resending it to the client.

If the file already has a URL then you don't need send_file. Just point the client's browser at it.

thanks for the response. you'll notice i posted in the original "because I want to conceal the cloud URL"

thanks for the response. you'll notice i posted in the original "because I want to conceal the cloud URL"

send_file can't do that. I suppose you could write a small rails metal or embedded Sinatra app that streamed the file to them. You might also be able to use something like nginx's x-accel-redirect to proxy them to the URL

Fred