How do you pass the image in flask to processing in python from static folder?

Currently, I am scrapping the image from the web but it is definitely a vulnerability. Would appreciate guidance on passing the image from static folder to processing in the python script.

from PIL import Image
from io import BytesIO
import requests

def generate_image(yel_stars,r=250,g=250,b=250):
    #generate background color
    first_im = Image.new(mode="RGBA", size=(300, 300), color = (r,g,b))

    #get star image        
    star_url='https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2017/01/07/21/22/stars-1961613_1280.png'
    img = requests.get(star_url).content
    #preprocess star image
    team_img = Image.open(BytesIO(img)).convert("RGBA")
    team_img = team_img.resize((40, 20), resample=Image.NEAREST)

    #generate the location of stars *2 for x and y axis
    hor = generateRandomNumber(0, 280, yel_stars*2)
    #put on the image
    for x in range(yel_stars):
        first_im.paste(team_img,(hor[x],hor[x+yel_stars]), team_img)
    return first_im

>Solution :

You can create a function that will attempt to open it from the static folder unless it doesn’t exist, in which case it will fetch from the web. It is a simple caching mechanism. Make sure you create a /static folder or change the path accordingly.

For example:

from PIL import Image
import requests


STAR_URL = 'https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2017/01/07/21/22/stars-1961613_1280.png'
STATC_STAR_LOCATION = "./static/star.png"
def open_star():
    try:
        # Attempt to open if exists
        return open(STATC_STAR_LOCATION, 'rb')
    except FileNotFoundError:
        # Otherwise, fetch from web
        request = requests.get(STAR_URL, stream=True)
        file = open(STATC_STAR_LOCATION, 'w+b')
        for chunk in request.iter_content(chunk_size=1024):
            file.write(chunk)
        file.flush()
        file.seek(0)
        return file

def generate_image(yel_stars,r=250,g=250,b=250):
    #generate background color
    first_im = Image.new(mode="RGBA", size=(300, 300), color = (r,g,b))

    #get star image        
    star_file = open_star()
    #preprocess star image
    team_img = Image.open(star_file).convert("RGBA")
    team_img = team_img.resize((40, 20), resample=Image.NEAREST)

    #generate the location of stars *2 for x and y axis
    hor = generateRandomNumber(0, 280, yel_stars*2)
    #put on the image
    for x in range(yel_stars):
        first_im.paste(team_img,(hor[x],hor[x+yel_stars]), team_img)
    return first_im