Working with Tigris in Pixeltable

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This tutorial demonstrates how to configure Pixeltable to use Tigris for storage. This lets you store unlimited amounts of images in Tigris’ global data plane, allowing your images to load fast everywhere.

Prerequisites

A Tigris account, bucket, and access keypair (https://storage.new)

Important notes

Tigris usage may incur costs based on your plan.
Be mindful of sensitive data and consider security measures when integrating with external services.

First you need to install required libraries and enter a Tigris access keypair obtained via the Tigris Admin Console.

Set up environment

First, let’s install Pixeltable:

%pip install -qU pixeltable boto3 datasets

Configure authentication

These steps will have you enter in your Tigris credentials:

import os
from getpass import getpass

os.environ['AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID'] = getpass('Tigris access key ID')
os.environ['AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY'] = getpass('Tigris secret access key')
bucket_name = getpass('Tigris bucket name')

os.environ['AWS_ENDPOINT_URL_S3'] = 'https://t3.storage.dev'
os.environ['AWS_REGION'] = 'auto'
os.environ['PIXELTABLE_INPUT_MEDIA_DEST'] = f's3://{bucket_name}/input/'
os.environ['PIXELTABLE_OUTPUT_MEDIA_DEST'] = f's3://{bucket_name}/output/'

Create a table for images

Now let’s create a table that will contain images from the XeIaso/botw-screenshots-captioned dataset:

import pixeltable as pxt
from datasets import load_dataset

# Create directory for this demo
pxt.drop_dir('tigris', force=True)
pxt.create_dir('tigris', if_exists='replace')


# Load the dataset
ds = load_dataset('XeIaso/botw-screenshots-captioned')
# Import it to pixeltable with the name screenshots
pxt.drop_table('tigris/screenshots', force=True)
screenshots = pxt.create_table(
    'tigris/screenshots', source=ds, if_exists='replace'
)

Created directory ‘tigris’.
Created table ‘screenshots’.
Inserting rows into `screenshots`: 100 rows [00:01, 51.72 rows/s]
Inserting rows into `screenshots`: 100 rows [00:01, 55.57 rows/s]
Inserting rows into `screenshots`: 100 rows [00:01, 52.74 rows/s]
Inserting rows into `screenshots`: 100 rows [00:02, 33.96 rows/s]
Inserting rows into `screenshots`: 100 rows [00:02, 42.64 rows/s]
Inserting rows into `screenshots`: 100 rows [00:02, 39.65 rows/s]
Inserting rows into `screenshots`: 100 rows [00:02, 47.36 rows/s]
Inserting rows into `screenshots`: 28 rows [00:00, 6786.12 rows/s]
Inserted 728 rows with 0 errors.

Once the import is done, you can create thumbnails with a computed column:

# Add a computed column for thumbnails
# Uses output_media_dest by default, or specify a custom destination
screenshots.add_computed_column(
    thumbnail=screenshots.image.resize((256, 256)),
    destination=f's3://{bucket_name}/botw-screenshots/thumbnails/',
)

Added 728 column values with 0 errors.
728 rows updated, 728 values computed.

And then inspect that with the collect method:

results = screenshots.limit(1).collect()
results

Getting URLs for your files

When your files are in object storage, you can get URLs that point directly to them. These URLs work in HTML, APIs, or any application you need to serve media with. Fetch them with the .fileurl property:

screenshots.select(
    image=screenshots.image,
    image_url=screenshots.image.fileurl,
    thumbnail=screenshots.thumbnail,
    thumbnail_url=screenshots.thumbnail.fileurl,
).limit(1).collect()

Generating Presigned URLs

For private buckets or when you need time-limited access to files, use presigned URLs. These are temporary, authenticated URLs that allow anyone to access your files for a limited time without needing credentials. Use the presigned_url function from pixeltable.functions.net:

from pixeltable.functions import net

# Generate presigned URLs with 1-hour expiration (3600 seconds)
screenshots.select(
    image=screenshots.image,
    image_url=screenshots.image.fileurl,
    image_presigned=net.presigned_url(screenshots.image.fileurl, 3600),
    thumbnail=screenshots.thumbnail,
    thumbnail_url=screenshots.thumbnail.fileurl,
    thumbnail_presigned=net.presigned_url(
        screenshots.thumbnail.fileurl, 3600
    ),
).limit(1).collect()

Common expiration times

What you learned

When you configure Pixeltable to use Tigris to store images, adding images transparently uploads them into Tigris for global distribution.
You can override where images are stored in Tigris using the destination= kwarg when creating computed columns.
Use the .fileurl property in queries to get URLs for your stored files.
Use net.presigned_url() to generate time-limited, authenticated URLs for private bucket access.

Pixeltable handles everything else for you.

Next steps

See the Cloud Storage documentation for complete provider setup and authentication details.
Check out Pixeltable Configuration for all config options.
Join our Discord community if you have questions.

Welcome to Pixeltable

Tools

Core Concepts

How-To

Prerequisites

Important notes

Set up environment

Configure authentication

Create a table for images

Getting URLs for your files

Generating Presigned URLs

Common expiration times

What you learned

Next steps

Additional Resources

Welcome to Pixeltable

Tools

Core Concepts

How-To

Documentation Index

​Prerequisites

​Important notes

​Set up environment

​Configure authentication

​Create a table for images

​Getting URLs for your files

​Generating Presigned URLs

​Common expiration times

​What you learned

​Next steps

​Additional Resources

Prerequisites

Important notes

Set up environment

Configure authentication

Create a table for images

Getting URLs for your files

Generating Presigned URLs

Common expiration times

What you learned

Next steps

Additional Resources