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Getting Started

Quick start

Add Shrine to the Gemfile and write an initializer which sets up the storage and loads integration for your persistence library:

# Gemfile
gem "shrine", "~> 3.0"
require "shrine"
require "shrine/storage/file_system"

Shrine.storages = {
  cache: Shrine::Storage::FileSystem.new("public", prefix: "uploads/cache"), # temporary
  store: Shrine::Storage::FileSystem.new("public", prefix: "uploads"),       # permanent
}

Shrine.plugin :sequel # or :activerecord
Shrine.plugin :cached_attachment_data # for retaining the cached file across form redisplays
Shrine.plugin :restore_cached_data # re-extract metadata when attaching a cached file
Shrine.plugin :rack_file # for non-Rails apps

Next decide how you will name the attachment attribute on your model, and run a migration that adds an <attachment>_data text or JSON column, which Shrine will use to store all information about the attachment:

Sequel.migration do
  change do
    add_column :photos, :image_data, :text # or :jsonb
  end
end

If using jsonb consider adding a gin index for fast key-value pair searchability within image_data.

Now you can create an uploader class for the type of files you want to upload, and add a virtual attribute for handling attachments using this uploader to your model. If you do not care about adding plugins or additional processing, you can use Shrine::Attachment.

class ImageUploader < Shrine
  # plugins and uploading logic
end
class Photo < Sequel::Model
  include ImageUploader::Attachment(:image) # adds an `image` virtual attribute
end

Let's now add the form fields which will use this virtual attribute (NOT the <attachment>_data column attribute). We need (1) a file field for choosing files, and (2) a hidden field for retaining the uploaded file in case of validation errors and for potential direct uploads.

form_for @photo do |f|
  f.hidden_field :image, value: @photo.cached_image_data, id: nil
  f.file_field :image
  f.submit
end

Note that the file field needs to go after the hidden field, so that selecting a new file can always override the cached file in the hidden field. Also notice the enctype="multipart/form-data" HTML attribute, which is required for submitting files through the form (the Rails form builder will automatically generate this for you).

When the form is submitted, in your router/controller you can assign the file from request params to the attachment attribute on the model.

class PhotosController < ApplicationController
  def create
    Photo.create(photo_params)
    # ...
  end

  private

  def photo_params
    params.require(:photo).permit(:image)
  end
end

Once a file is uploaded and attached to the record, you can retrieve a URL to the uploaded file with #<attachment>_url and display it on the page:

<%= image_tag @photo.image_url %>

Storage

A "storage" in Shrine is an object that encapsulates communication with a specific storage service, by implementing a common public interface. Storage instances are registered under an identifier in Shrine.storages, so that they can later be used by uploaders.

Shrine ships with the following storages:

Here is how we might configure Shrine with S3 storage:

# Gemfile
gem "aws-sdk-s3", "~> 1.14" # for AWS S3 storage
require "shrine/storage/s3"

s3_options = {
  bucket:            "<YOUR BUCKET>", # required
  region:            "<YOUR REGION>", # required
  access_key_id:     "<YOUR ACCESS KEY ID>",
  secret_access_key: "<YOUR SECRET ACCESS KEY>",
}

Shrine.storages = {
  cache: Shrine::Storage::S3.new(prefix: "cache", **s3_options), # temporary
  store: Shrine::Storage::S3.new(**s3_options),                  # permanent
}

The above example sets up S3 for both temporary and permanent storage, which is suitable for direct uploads. The :cache and :store names are special only in terms that the attacher will automatically pick them up, you can also register more storage objects under different names.

See the FileSystem/S3/Memory storage docs for more details. There are many more Shrine storages provided by external gems, and you can also create your own storage.

Uploader

Uploaders are subclasses of Shrine, and they wrap the actual upload to the storage. They perform common tasks around upload that aren't related to a particular storage.

class MyUploader < Shrine
  # image attachment logic
end

It's common to create an uploader for each type of file that you want to handle (ImageUploader, VideoUploader, AudioUploader etc), but really you can organize them in any way you like.

Uploading

The main method of the uploader is Shrine.upload, which takes an IO-like object and a storage identifier on the input, and returns a representation of the uploaded file on the output.

MyUploader.upload(file, :store) #=> #<Shrine::UploadedFile>

Internally this instantiates the uploader with the storage and calls Shrine#upload:

uploader = MyUploader.new(:store)
uploader.upload(file) #=> #<Shrine::UploadedFile>

Some of the tasks performed by #upload include:

The second argument is a "context" hash which is forwarded to places like metadata extraction and location generation, but it has a few special options:

uploader.upload(io, metadata: { "foo" => "bar" })           # add metadata
uploader.upload(io, location: "path/to/file")               # specify custom location
uploader.upload(io, upload_options: { acl: "public-read" }) # add options to Storage#upload

IO abstraction

Shrine is able to upload any IO-like object that implement methods #read, #rewind, #eof? and #close whose behaviour matches the IO class. This includes but is not limited to the following objects:

uploader.upload File.open("/path/to/file", binmode: true)   # upload from disk
uploader.upload StringIO.new("file content")                # upload from memory
uploader.upload ActionDispatch::Http::UploadedFile.new(...) # upload from Rails controller
uploader.upload Shrine.rack_file({ tempfile: tempfile })    # upload from Rack controller
uploader.upload Rack::Test::UploadedFile.new(...)           # upload from rack-test
uploader.upload Down.open("https://example.org/file")       # upload from internet
uploader.upload Shrine::UploadedFile.new(...)               # upload from Shrine storage

Uploaded file

The Shrine::UploadedFile object represents the file that was uploaded to a storage, and it's what's returned from Shrine#upload or when retrieving a record attachment.

uploader.upload(file) #=> #<Shrine::UploadedFile ...>  (uploader)
photo.image           #=> #<Shrine::UploadedFile ...>  (attachment)
attacher.file         #=> #<Shrine::UploadedFile ...>  (attacher)

An uploaded file object contains the following data:

KeyDescription
idlocation of the file on the storage
storageidentifier of the storage the file was uploaded to
metadatafile metadata that was extracted before upload
uploaded_file #=> #<Shrine::UploadedFile id="949sdjg834.jpg" storage=:store metadata={...}>

uploaded_file.id          #=> "949sdjg834.jpg"
uploaded_file.storage_key #=> :store
uploaded_file.storage     #=> #<Shrine::Storage::S3>
uploaded_file.metadata    #=> {...}

It comes with many convenient methods that delegate to the storage:

uploaded_file.url                     #=> "https://my-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/949sdjg834.jpg"
uploaded_file.open { |io| ... }       # opens the uploaded file stream
uploaded_file.download { |file| ... } # downloads the uploaded file to disk
uploaded_file.stream(destination)     # streams uploaded content into a writable destination
uploaded_file.exists?                 #=> true
uploaded_file.delete                  # deletes the uploaded file from the storage

It also implements the IO-like interface that conforms to Shrine's IO abstraction, which allows it to be uploaded again to other storages.

uploaded_file.read   # returns content of the uploaded file
uploaded_file.eof?   # returns true if the whole IO was read
uploaded_file.rewind # rewinds the IO
uploaded_file.close  # closes the IO

For more details, see the Retrieving Uploads guide and Shrine::UploadedFile API docs.

Attaching

To attach uploaded files to database records, Shrine offers an attachment interface built on top of uploaders and uploaded files. There are integrations for various persistence libraries (ActiveRecord, Sequel, ROM, Hanami, Mongoid), but you can also attach files to plain structs (mutable or immutable).

Shrine.plugin :sequel # :activerecord

Attachment module

The easiest way to attach files is with the Shrine::Attachment module:

class Photo < Sequel::Model # ActiveRecord::Base
  include ImageUploader::Attachment.new(:image) #
  include ImageUploader::Attachment[:image]     # use your preferred syntax
  include ImageUploader::Attachment(:image)     #
end

The included module will add attachment methods for the specified attribute:

MethodDescription
#image=uploads the file to temporary storage and serializes the result into image_data
#imagereturns Shrine::UploadedFile instantiated from image_data
#image_urlcalls url on the attachment if it's present, otherwise returns nil
#image_attacherreturns instance of Shrine::Attacher which handles the attaching

The persistence plugin we loaded will add callbacks that ensure cached files are automatically promoted to permanent storage on when record is saved, and that attachments are deleted when the record is destroyed.

# no file is attached
photo.image #=> nil

# the assigned file is cached to temporary storage and written to `image_data` column
photo.image = File.open("waterfall.jpg", "rb")
photo.image      #=> #<Shrine::UploadedFile ...>
photo.image_url  #=> "/uploads/cache/0sdfllasfi842.jpg"
photo.image_data #=> '{"id":"0sdfllasfi842.jpg","storage":"cache","metadata":{...}}'

# the cached file is promoted to permanent storage and saved to `image_data` column
photo.save
photo.image      #=> #<Shrine::UploadedFile ...>
photo.image_url  #=> "/uploads/store/l02kladf8jlda.jpg"
photo.image_data #=> '{"id":"l02kladf8jlda.jpg","storage":"store","metadata":{...}}'

# the attached file is deleted with the record
photo.destroy
photo.image.exists? #=> false

If there is already a file attached and a new file is attached, the previous attachment will get deleted when the record gets saved.

photo.update(image: new_file) # changes the attachment and deletes previous
photo.update(image: nil)      # removes the attachment and deletes previous

Attacher

The methods and callbacks added by the Shrine::Attachment module just delegate the behaviour to an underlying Shrine::Attacher object.

photo.image_attacher #=> #<Shrine::Attacher>

The Shrine::Attacher object can be instantiated and used directly:

attacher = ImageUploader::Attacher.from_model(photo, :image)

attacher.assign(file) # equivalent to `photo.image = file`
attacher.file         # equivalent to `photo.image`
attacher.url          # equivalent to `photo.image_url`

The attacher is what drives attaching files to model instances; you can use it as a more explicit alternative to models' attachment interface, or when you need something that's not available through the attachment methods.

See Using Attacher guide for more details.

Temporary storage

Shrine uses temporary storage to support file validation and direct uploads. If you don't need these features, you can tell Shrine to upload files directly to permanent storage:

Shrine.plugin :model, cache: false
photo.image = File.open("waterfall.jpg", "rb")
photo.image.storage_key #=> :store

If you're using the attacher directly, you can just use Attacher#attach instead of Attacher#assign:

attacher.attach File.open("waterfall.jpg", "rb")
attacher.file.storage_key #=> :store

Plugin system

By default, Shrine comes with a small core which provides only the essential functionality. All additional features are available via plugins, which also ship with Shrine. This way you can choose exactly what and how much Shrine does for you, and you load the code only for features that you use.

Shrine.plugin :instrumentation # adds instrumentation

Plugins add behaviour by extending Shrine core classes via module inclusion, and many of them also accept configuration options. The plugin system respects inheritance, so you can choose to load a plugin globally or per uploader.

class ImageUploader < Shrine
  plugin :store_dimensions # extract image dimensions only for this uploader and its descendants
end

If you want to extend Shrine functionality with custom behaviour, you can also create your own plugin. There are also additional external plugins created by others.

NOTE: An uploader class will inherit a copy of current superclass' plugin options at the time of subclassing. This means you should not load additional plugins on a superclass after the subclass has already been created, because new options will not get applied to the subclass, which can result in errors.

Metadata

Shrine automatically extracts some basic file metadata and saves them to the Shrine::UploadedFile. You can access them through the #metadata hash or via metadata methods:

uploaded_file.metadata #=>
# {
#   "filename" => "matrix.mp4",
#   "mime_type" => "video/mp4",
#   "size" => 345993,
# }

uploaded_file.original_filename #=> "matrix.mp4"
uploaded_file.extension         #=> "mp4"
uploaded_file.mime_type         #=> "video/mp4"
uploaded_file.size              #=> 345993

MIME type

By default, mime_type metadata will be set from the #content_type attribute of the uploaded file (if it exists), which is generally not secure and will trigger a warning. You can load the determine_mime_type plugin to have MIME type extracted from file content instead.

# Gemfile
gem "marcel", "~> 0.3"
Shrine.plugin :determine_mime_type, analyzer: :marcel
photo = Photo.new(image: StringIO.new("<?php ... ?>"))
photo.image.mime_type #=> "application/x-php"

Other metadata

In addition to basic metadata, you can also extract image dimensions, calculate signatures, and in general extract any custom metadata. Check out the Extracting Metadata guide for more details.

Processing

Shrine allows you to process attached files both "eagerly" and "on-the-fly". For example, if your app is accepting image uploads, you can generate a predefined set of thumbnails when the image is attached to a record, or you can have thumbnails generated dynamically as they're needed.

For image processing, it's recommended to use the ImageProcessing gem, which is a high-level wrapper for processing with MiniMagick and libvips.

$ brew install imagemagick vips

Eager processing

We can use the derivatives plugin to generate a pre-defined set of processed files (e.g. image thumbnails). We do this by registering a derivatives processor block and then explicitly triggering creation:

# Gemfile
gem "image_processing", "~> 1.8"
Shrine.plugin :derivatives, create_on_promote: true
require "image_processing/mini_magick"

class ImageUploader < Shrine
  Attacher.derivatives do |original|
    magick = ImageProcessing::MiniMagick.source(original)

    {
      large:  magick.resize_to_limit!(800, 800),
      medium: magick.resize_to_limit!(500, 500),
      small:  magick.resize_to_limit!(300, 300),
    }
  end
end
photo = Photo.new(image: file)
photo.save # automatically creates derivatives on promotion

You can then retrieve the URL of a processed derivative:

photo.image_url(:large) #=> "https://s3.amazonaws.com/path/to/large.jpg"

The derivatives data is stored in the <attachment>_data column, and you can retrieve them as Shrine::UploadedFile objects:

photo.image(:large)           #=> #<Shrine::UploadedFile id="path/to/large.jpg" storage=:store metadata={...}>
photo.image(:large).url       #=> "https://s3.amazonaws.com/path/to/large.jpg"
photo.image(:large).size      #=> 5825949
photo.image(:large).mime_type #=> "image/jpeg"

For more details, see the File Processing guide and the derivatives plugin documentation.

On-the-fly processing

On-the-fly processing is provided by the derivation_endpoint plugin. To set it up, we configure the plugin with a secret key and a path prefix, mount its Rack app in our routes on the configured path prefix, and define processing we want to perform:

# Gemfile
gem "image_processing", "~> 1.8"
# config/initializers/rails.rb (Rails)
# ...
Shrine.plugin :derivation_endpoint, secret_key: "<YOUR_SECRET_KEY>"
require "image_processing/mini_magick"

class ImageUploader < Shrine
  plugin :derivation_endpoint, prefix: "derivations/image" # matches mount point

  derivation :thumbnail do |file, width, height|
    ImageProcessing::MiniMagick
      .source(file)
      .resize_to_limit!(width.to_i, height.to_i)
  end
end
# config/routes.rb (Rails)
Rails.application.routes.draw do
  # ...
  mount ImageUploader.derivation_endpoint => "/derivations/image"
end

Now we can generate URLs from attached files that will perform the desired processing:

photo.image.derivation_url(:thumbnail, 600, 400)
#=> "/derivations/image/thumbnail/600/400/eyJpZCI6ImZvbyIsInN0b3JhZ2UiOiJzdG9yZSJ9?signature=..."

The on-the-fly processing feature is highly customizable, see the derivation_endpoint plugin documentation for more details.

Validation

The validation plugin allows performing validation for attached files. For common validations, the validation_helpers plugin provides useful validators for built in metadata:

Shrine.plugin :validation_helpers
class DocumentUploader < Shrine
  Attacher.validate do
    validate_max_size 5*1024*1024, message: "is too large (max is 5 MB)"
    validate_mime_type %w[application/pdf]
  end
end
user = User.new
user.cv = File.open("cv.pdf", "rb")
user.valid? #=> false
user.errors.to_hash #=> {:cv=>["is too large (max is 5 MB)"]}

For more details, see the File Validation guide and validation_helpers plugin docs.

Location

Shrine automatically generates random locations before uploading files. By default, the hierarchy is flat, meaning all files are stored in the root directory of the storage.

024d9fe83bf4fafb.jpg
768a336bf54de219.jpg
adfaa363629f7fc5.png
...

The pretty_location plugin provides a good default hierarchy:

Shrine.plugin :pretty_location
user/
564/
avatar/
aa3e0cd715.jpg
thumb-493g82jf23.jpg
photo/
123/
image/
13f8a7bc18.png
thumb-9be62da67e.png
...

But you can also override Shrine#generate_location with a custom implementation, for example:

class ImageUploader < Shrine
  def generate_location(io, record: nil, derivative: nil, **)
    return super unless record

    table  = record.class.table_name
    id     = record.id
    prefix = derivative || "original"

    "uploads/#{table}/#{id}/#{prefix}-#{super}"
  end
end
uploads/
photos/
123/
original-afe929b8b4.jpg
small-ad61f25883.jpg
medium-41b75c42bb.jpg
large-73e67abe50.jpg
...

There should always be a random component in the location, so that the ORM dirty tracking is detected properly.

The Shrine#generate_location method contains a lot of useful context for the upcoming upload:

class ImageUploader < Shrine
  def generate_location(io, record: nil, name: nil, derivative: nil, metadata: {}, **options)
    storage_key #=> :cache, :store, ...
    io          #=> #<File>, #<Shrine::UploadedFile>, ...
    record      #=> #<Photo>, #<User>, ...
    name        #=> :image, :avatar, ...
    derivative  #=> :small, :medium, :large, ... (derivatives plugin)
    metadata    #=> { "filename" => "nature.jpg", "mime_type" => "image/jpeg", "size" => 18573, ... }
    options     #=> { ... other uploader options ... }

    # ...
  end
end

Direct uploads

To improve the user experience, it's recommended to upload files asynchronously as soon as the user selects them. The direct uploads would go to temporary storage, just like in the synchronous flow. Then, instead of attaching a raw file to your model, you assign the cached file JSON data.

# in the regular synchronous flow
photo.image = file

# in the direct upload flow
photo.image = '{"id":"...","storage":"cache","metadata":{...}}'

On the client side it's highly recommended to use Uppy, a very flexible modern JavaScript file upload library that happens to integrate nicely with Shrine.

Simple direct upload

The simplest approach is to upload directly to an endpoint in your app, which forwards uploads to the specified storage. The upload_endpoint Shrine plugin provides a mountable Rack app that implements this endpoint:

Shrine.plugin :upload_endpoint
# config/routes.rb (Rails)
Rails.application.routes.draw do
  # ...
  mount Shrine.upload_endpoint(:cache) => "/upload" # POST /upload
end

Then you can configure Uppy's XHR Upload plugin to upload to this endpoint. See this walkthrough for adding simple direct uploads from scratch, it includes a complete JavaScript example (there is also the Roda / Rails demo app).

Presigned direct upload

For better performance, you can also upload files directly to your cloud storage service (AWS S3, Google Cloud Storage etc). For this, your temporary storage needs to be your cloud service:

require "shrine/storage/s3"

Shrine.storages = {
  cache: Shrine::Storage::S3.new(prefix: "cache", **s3_options),
  store: Shrine::Storage::S3.new(**s3_options)
}

In this flow, the client needs to first fetch upload parameters from the server, and then use these parameters for the upload to the cloud service. The presign_endpoint Shrine plugin provides a mountable Rack app that generates upload parameters:

Shrine.plugin :presign_endpoint
# config/routes.rb (Rails)
Rails.application.routes.draw do
  # ...
  mount Shrine.presign_endpoint(:cache) => "/s3/params" # GET /s3/params
end

Then you can configure Uppy's AWS S3 plugin to fetch params from your endpoint before uploading to S3. See this walkthrough for adding direct uploads to S3 from scratch, it includes a complete JavaScript example (there is also the Roda / Rails demo). See also the Direct Uploads to S3 guide for more details.

Resumable direct upload

If your app is accepting large uploads, you can improve resilience by making the uploads resumable. This can significantly improve experience for users on slow and flaky internet connections.

Uppy S3 Multipart

You can achieve resumable uploads directly to S3 with the AWS S3 Multipart Uppy plugin, accompanied with uppy_s3_multipart Shrine plugin provided by the uppy-s3_multipart gem.

# Gemfile
gem "uppy-s3_multipart", "~> 0.3"
Shrine.plugin :uppy_s3_multipart
# config/routes.rb (Rails)
Rails.application.routes.draw do
  # ...
  mount Shrine.uppy_s3_multipart(:cache) => "/s3/multipart"
end

See the uppy-s3_multipart docs for more details.

Tus protocol

If you want a more generic approach, you can build your resumable uploads on tus – an open resumable upload protocol. On the server side you can use the tus-ruby-server gem, on the client side Uppy's Tus plugin, and the shrine-tus gem for the glue.

# Gemfile
gem "tus-server", "~> 2.0"
gem "shrine-tus", "~> 2.1"
require "shrine/storage/tus"

Shrine.storages = {
  cache: Shrine::Storage::Tus.new, # tus server acts as temporary storage
  store: ...,                      # your permanent storage
}
# config/routes.rb (Rails)
Rails.application.routes.draw do
  # ...
  mount Tus::Server => "/files"
end

See this walkthrough for adding tus-powered resumable uploads from scratch, it includes a complete JavaScript example (there is also a demo app). See also shrine-tus and tus-ruby-server docs for more details.

Backgrounding

The backgrounding plugin allows you to move file promotion and deletion into a background job, using the backgrounding library of your choice:

Shrine.plugin :backgrounding
Shrine::Attacher.promote_block do
  PromoteJob.perform_async(self.class.name, record.class.name, record.id, name, file_data)
end
Shrine::Attacher.destroy_block do
  DestroyJob.perform_async(self.class.name, data)
end
class PromoteJob
  include Sidekiq::Worker

  def perform(attacher_class, record_class, record_id, name, file_data)
    attacher_class = Object.const_get(attacher_class)
    record         = Object.const_get(record_class).find(record_id) # if using Active Record

    attacher = attacher_class.retrieve(model: record, name: name, file: file_data)
    attacher.atomic_promote
  rescue Shrine::AttachmentChanged, ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound
    # attachment has changed or the record has been deleted, nothing to do
  end
end
class DestroyJob
  include Sidekiq::Worker

  def perform(attacher_class, data)
    attacher_class = Object.const_get(attacher_class)

    attacher = attacher_class.from_data(data)
    attacher.destroy
  end
end

Clearing cache

Shrine doesn't automatically delete files uploaded to temporary storage, instead you should set up a separate recurring task that will automatically delete old cached files.

Most Shrine storage classes come with a #clear! method, which you can call in a recurring script. For FileSystem and S3 storage it would look like this:

# FileSystem storage
file_system = Shrine.storages[:cache]
file_system.clear! { |path| path.mtime < Time.now - 7*24*60*60 } # delete files older than 1 week
# S3 storage
s3 = Shrine.storages[:cache]
s3.clear! { |object| object.last_modified < Time.now - 7*24*60*60 } # delete files older than 1 week

For S3, it may be easier and cheaper to use S3 bucket lifecycle expiration rules instead.

Logging

The instrumentation plugin sends and logs events for important operations:

Shrine.plugin :instrumentation, notifications: ActiveSupport::Notifications

uploaded_file = Shrine.upload(io, :store)
uploaded_file.exists?
uploaded_file.download
uploaded_file.delete
Metadata (32ms) – {:storage=>:store, :io=>StringIO, :uploader=>Shrine}
Upload (1523ms) – {:storage=>:store, :location=>"ed0e30ddec8b97813f2c1f4cfd1700b4", :io=>StringIO, :upload_options=>{}, :uploader=>Shrine}
Exists (755ms) – {:storage=>:store, :location=>"ed0e30ddec8b97813f2c1f4cfd1700b4", :uploader=>Shrine}
Download (1002ms) – {:storage=>:store, :location=>"ed0e30ddec8b97813f2c1f4cfd1700b4", :download_options=>{}, :uploader=>Shrine}
Delete (700ms) – {:storage=>:store, :location=>"ed0e30ddec8b97813f2c1f4cfd1700b4", :uploader=>Shrine}

Some plugins add their own instrumentation as well when they detect that the instrumentation plugin has been loaded. For that to work, the instrumentation plugin needs to be loaded before any of these plugins.

PluginInstrumentation
derivation_endpointinstruments file processing
derivativesinstruments file processing
determine_mime_typeinstruments analyzing MIME type
store_dimensionsinstruments extracting image dimensions
signatureinstruments calculating signature
infer_extensioninstruments inferring extension
remote_urlinstruments remote URL downloading
data_uriinstruments data URI parsing

For instrumentation, warnings, and other logging, Shrine uses its internal logger. You can tell Shrine to use a different logger. For example, if you're using Rails, you might want to tell it to use the Rails logger:

Shrine.logger = Rails.logger

In tests you might want to tell Shrine to log only warnings:

Shrine.logger.level = Logger::WARN