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Speaker Avatars S3 Setup

This document explains how to set up S3 for hosting speaker avatars as a fallback when blockchainsummit.la is not responding.

Problem​

Speaker avatars are currently hosted on blockchainsummit.la, which sometimes doesn't respond, causing avatars to not load in the application.

Solution​

  1. Download all speaker avatars from blockchainsummit.la
  2. Upload them to S3
  3. Update the database with S3 URLs
  4. The application will use S3 URLs from the database, with blockchainsummit.la as fallback

Prerequisites​

  1. AWS Account with S3 access
  2. S3 Bucket created (or use existing hashpass-email-assets bucket)
  3. AWS Access Key ID and Secret Access Key with S3 permissions
  4. Environment variables configured in .env:
AWS_REGION=us-east-2
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=your-access-key-id
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=your-secret-access-key
AWS_S3_BUCKET_NAME=hashpass-email-assets
AWS_S3_CDN_URL=https://your-cdn-url.com  # Optional, for CDN

Running the Script​

node scripts/download-and-upload-speaker-avatars.mjs

The script will:

  1. Fetch all speakers from the database
  2. For each speaker with a blockchainsummit.la URL:
    • Check if the avatar already exists in S3
    • If not, download the image from blockchainsummit.la
    • Upload to S3 at speakers/avatars/foto-{speaker-name}.png
    • Update the database imageurl field with the S3 URL

S3 Bucket Structure​

hashpass-email-assets/
  └── speakers/
      └── avatars/
          ├── foto-rafael-gago.png
          ├── foto-daniel-marulanda.png
          └── ...

Database Update​

The script updates the bsl_speakers.imageurl field with the S3 URL. The application code already uses s.imageurl || getSpeakerAvatarUrl(s.name), so it will automatically use the S3 URL from the database.

Fallback Logic​

  1. Primary: Use imageurl from database (S3 URL after script runs)
  2. Fallback: Use getSpeakerAvatarUrl(name) which always generates S3 URLs

Troubleshooting​

AWS Credentials Error​

If you see "The AWS Access Key Id you provided does not exist in our records":

  • Check that AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY are set in .env
  • Verify the credentials are correct
  • Ensure the IAM user has S3 permissions

Download Failures​

If downloads fail:

  • Check network connectivity
  • Verify blockchainsummit.la is accessible
  • Some images may have different paths (e.g., /2025/11/ instead of /2025/09/)

S3 Upload Failures​

If uploads fail:

  • Check S3 bucket permissions
  • Verify the bucket name is correct
  • Ensure the IAM user has s3:PutObject permission

Manual Upload​

If the script fails, you can manually:

  1. Download images from blockchainsummit.la
  2. Upload to S3 using AWS Console or CLI
  3. Update database manually with S3 URLs