# Paperclip with external url and asset\_host?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/paperclip-with-external-url-and-asset-host/176207>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [September 26, 2009, 1:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/paperclip-with-external-url-and-asset-host/176207 "2009-09-26T13:22:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![aftershock](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@aftershock](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/aftershock)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2009, 1:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/paperclip-with-external-url-and-asset-host/176207/1 "2009-09-26T13:22:41Z")

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Hi,  
I’m trying to get Paperclip to work with asset\_host and have totally  
failed to do so.

The idea is to use asset\_host to specify the url that I want to use for  
my image hosting ([www.unlimitedwebhosting.co.uk](http://www.unlimitedwebhosting.co.uk)) so that link helpers  
will use the image host location instead of the local file system.

This works really well and in truth I’m totaly blown away by the power  
and simplicity of Rails but for the life of me I can’t get Paperclip to  
play ball.

Having delved a little into the Paperclip source (scary!) I find that  
the File class is used to do the io streaming and I’ve kinda got an  
incling that I might be able to make use of this knowledge somehow but I  
really need a pointer as to how to proceed with this.

I notice that there is an S3 option and also wondered if that could be  
adapted to be used to in some way?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated

James