Laravel 8.x File Storage

Introduction

Laravel provides a powerful filesystem abstraction thanks to the wonderful Flysystem PHP package by Frank de Jonge. The Laravel Flysystem integration provides simple drivers for working with local filesystems, SFTP, and Amazon S3. Even better, it's amazingly simple to switch between these storage options between your local development machine and production server as the API remains the same for each system.

Configuration

Laravel's filesystem configuration file is located at config/filesystems.php. Within this file, you may configure all of your filesystem "disks". Each disk represents a particular storage driver and storage location. Example configurations for each supported driver are included in the configuration file so you can modify the configuration to reflect your storage preferences and credentials.

The local driver interacts with files stored locally on the server running the Laravel application while the s3 driver is used to write to Amazon's S3 cloud storage service.

lightbulb">Tip!! You may configure as many disks as you like and may even have multiple disks that use the same driver.

The Local Driver

When using the local driver, all file operations are relative to the root directory defined in your filesystems configuration file. By default, this value is set to the storage/app directory. Therefore, the following method would write to storage/app/example.txt:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Storage;

Storage::disk('local')->put('example.txt', 'Contents');

The Public Disk

The public disk included in your application's filesystems configuration file is intended for files that are going to be publicly accessible. By default, the public disk uses the local driver and stores its files in storage/app/public.

To make these files accessible from the web, you should create a symbolic link from public/storage to storage/app/public. Utilizing this folder convention will keep your publicly accessible files in one directory that can be easily shared across deployments when using zero down-time deployment systems like Envoyer.

To create the symbolic link, you may use the storage:link Artisan command:

php artisan storage:link

Once a file has been stored and the symbolic link has been created, you can create a URL to the files using the asset helper:

echo asset('storage/file.txt');

You may configure additional symbolic links in your filesystems configuration file. Each of the configured links will be created when you run the storage:link command:

'links' => [
    public_path('storage') => storage_path('app/public'),
    public_path('images') => storage_path('app/images'),
],

Driver Prerequisites

Composer Packages

Before using the S3 or SFTP drivers, you will need to install the appropriate package via the Composer package manager:

• Amazon S3: composer require --with-all-dependencies league/flysystem-aws-s3-v3 "^1.0"
• SFTP: composer require league/flysystem-sftp "~1.0"

In addition, you may choose to install a cached adapter for increased performance:

• CachedAdapter: composer require league/flysystem-cached-adapter "~1.0"

S3 Driver Configuration

The S3 driver configuration information is located in your config/filesystems.php configuration file. This file contains an example configuration array for an S3 driver. You are free to modify this array with your own S3 configuration and credentials. For convenience, these environment variables match the naming convention used by the AWS CLI.

FTP Driver Configuration

Laravel's Flysystem integrations work great with FTP; however, a sample configuration is not included with the framework's default filesystems.php configuration file. If you need to configure an FTP filesystem, you may use the configuration example below:

'ftp' => [
    'driver' => 'ftp',
    'host' => env('FTP_HOST'),
    'username' => env('FTP_USERNAME'),
    'password' => env('FTP_PASSWORD'),

    // Optional FTP Settings...
    // 'port' => env('FTP_PORT', 21),
    // 'root' => env('FTP_ROOT'),
    // 'passive' => true,
    // 'ssl' => true,
    // 'timeout' => 30,
],

SFTP Driver Configuration

Laravel's Flysystem integrations work great with SFTP; however, a sample configuration is not included with the framework's default filesystems.php configuration file. If you need to configure an SFTP filesystem, you may use the configuration example below:

'sftp' => [
    'driver' => 'sftp',
    'host' => env('SFTP_HOST'),
    
    // Settings for basic authentication...
    'username' => env('SFTP_USERNAME'),
    'password' => env('SFTP_PASSWORD'),

    // Settings for SSH key based authentication with encryption password...
    'privateKey' => env('SFTP_PRIVATE_KEY'),
    'password' => env('SFTP_PASSWORD'),

    // Optional SFTP Settings...
    // 'port' => env('SFTP_PORT', 22),
    // 'root' => env('SFTP_ROOT'),
    // 'timeout' => 30,
],

Amazon S3 Compatible Filesystems

By default, your application's filesystems configuration file contains a disk configuration for the s3 disk. In addition to using this disk to interact with Amazon S3, you may use it to interact with any S3 compatible file storage service such as MinIO or DigitalOcean Spaces.

Typically, after updating the disk's credentials to match the credentials of the service you are planning to use, you only need to update the value of the url configuration option. This option's value is typically defined via the AWS_ENDPOINT environment variable:

'endpoint' => env('AWS_ENDPOINT', 'https://minio:9000'),

Caching

To enable caching for a given disk, you may add a cache directive to the disk's configuration options. The cache option should be an array of caching options containing the disk name, the expire time in seconds, and the cache prefix:

's3' => [
    'driver' => 's3',

    // Other Disk Options...

    'cache' => [
        'store' => 'memcached',
        'expire' => 600,
        'prefix' => 'cache-prefix',
    ],
],

Obtaining Disk Instances

The Storage facade may be used to interact with any of your configured disks. For example, you may use the put method on the facade to store an avatar on the default disk. If you call methods on the Storage facade without first calling the disk method, the method will automatically be passed to the default disk:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Storage;

Storage::put('avatars/1', $content);

If your application interacts with multiple disks, you may use the disk method on the Storage facade to work with files on a particular disk:

Storage::disk('s3')->put('avatars/1', $content);

On-Demand Disks

Sometimes you may wish to create a disk at runtime using a given configuration without that configuration actually being present in your application's filesystems configuration file. To accomplish this, you may pass a configuration array to the Storage facade's build method:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Storage;

$disk = Storage::build([
    'driver' => 'local',
    'root' => '/path/to/root',
]);

$disk->put('image.jpg', $content);

Retrieving Files

The get method may be used to retrieve the contents of a file. The raw string contents of the file will be returned by the method. Remember, all file paths should be specified relative to the disk's "root" location:

$contents = Storage::get('file.jpg');

The exists method may be used to determine if a file exists on the disk:

if (Storage::disk('s3')->exists('file.jpg')) {
    // ...
}

The missing method may be used to determine if a file is missing from the disk:

if (Storage::disk('s3')->missing('file.jpg')) {
    // ...
}

Downloading Files

The download method may be used to generate a response that forces the user's browser to download the file at the given path. The download method accepts a filename as the second argument to the method, which will determine the filename that is seen by the user downloading the file. Finally, you may pass an array of HTTP headers as the third argument to the method:

return Storage::download('file.jpg');

return Storage::download('file.jpg', $name, $headers);

File URLs

You may use the url method to get the URL for a given file. If you are using the local driver, this will typically just prepend /storage to the given path and return a relative URL to the file. If you are using the s3 driver, the fully qualified remote URL will be returned:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Storage;

$url = Storage::url('file.jpg');

When using the local driver, all files that should be publicly accessible should be placed in the storage/app/public directory. Furthermore, you should create a symbolic link at public/storage which points to the storage/app/public directory.

Note: note When using the local driver, the return value of url is not URL encoded. For this reason, we recommend always storing your files using names that will create valid URLs.

Temporary URLs

Using the temporaryUrl method, you may create temporary URLs to files stored using the s3 driver. This method accepts a path and a DateTime instance specifying when the URL should expire:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Storage;

$url = Storage::temporaryUrl(
    'file.jpg', now()->addMinutes(5)
);

If you need to specify additional S3 request parameters, you may pass the array of request parameters as the third argument to the temporaryUrl method:

$url = Storage::temporaryUrl(
    'file.jpg',
    now()->addMinutes(5),
    [
        'ResponseContentType' => 'application/octet-stream',
        'ResponseContentDisposition' => 'attachment; filename=file2.jpg',
    ]
);

If you need to customize how temporary URLs are created for a specific storage disk, you can use the buildTemporaryUrlsUsing method. For example, this can be useful if you have a controller that allows you to download files stored via a disk that doesn't typically support temporary URLs. Usually, this method should be called from the boot method of a service provider:

<?php

namespace App\Providers;

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Storage;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\URL;
use Illuminate\Support\ServiceProvider;

class AppServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
{
    /**
     * Bootstrap any application services.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function boot()
    {
        Storage::disk('local')->buildTemporaryUrlsUsing(function ($path, $expiration, $options) {
            return URL::temporarySignedRoute(
                'files.download',
                $expiration,
                array_merge($options, ['path' => $path])
            );
        });
    }
}

URL Host Customization

If you would like to pre-define the host for URLs generated using the Storage facade, you may add a url option to the disk's configuration array:

'public' => [
    'driver' => 'local',
    'root' => storage_path('app/public'),
    'url' => env('APP_URL').'/storage',
    'visibility' => 'public',
],

File Metadata

In addition to reading and writing files, Laravel can also provide information about the files themselves. For example, the size method may be used to get the size of a file in bytes:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Storage;

$size = Storage::size('file.jpg');

The lastModified method returns the UNIX timestamp of the last time the file was modified:

$time = Storage::lastModified('file.jpg');

File Paths

You may use the path method to get the path for a given file. If you are using the local driver, this will return the absolute path to the file. If you are using the s3 driver, this method will return the relative path to the file in the S3 bucket:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Storage;

$path = Storage::path('file.jpg');

Storing Files

The put method may be used to store file contents on a disk. You may also pass a PHP resource to the put method, which will use Flysystem's underlying stream support. Remember, all file paths should be specified relative to the "root" location configured for the disk:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Storage;

Storage::put('file.jpg', $contents);

Storage::put('file.jpg', $resource);

Automatic Streaming

Streaming files to storage offers significantly reduced memory usage. If you would like Laravel to automatically manage streaming a given file to your storage location, you may use the putFile or putFileAs method. This method accepts either an Illuminate\Http\File or Illuminate\Http\UploadedFile instance and will automatically stream the file to your desired location:

use Illuminate\Http\File;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Storage;

// Automatically generate a unique ID for filename...
$path = Storage::putFile('photos', new File('/path/to/photo'));

// Manually specify a filename...
$path = Storage::putFileAs('photos', new File('/path/to/photo'), 'photo.jpg');

There are a few important things to note about the putFile method. Note that we only specified a directory name and not a filename. By default, the putFile method will generate a unique ID to serve as the filename. The file's extension will be determined by examining the file's MIME type. The path to the file will be returned by the putFile method so you can store the path, including the generated filename, in your database.

The putFile and putFileAs methods also accept an argument to specify the "visibility" of the stored file. This is particularly useful if you are storing the file on a cloud disk such as Amazon S3 and would like the file to be publicly accessible via generated URLs:

Storage::putFile('photos', new File('/path/to/photo'), 'public');

Prepending & Appending To Files

The prepend and append methods allow you to write to the beginning or end of a file:

Storage::prepend('file.log', 'Prepended Text');

Storage::append('file.log', 'Appended Text');

Copying & Moving Files

The copy method may be used to copy an existing file to a new location on the disk, while the move method may be used to rename or move an existing file to a new location:

Storage::copy('old/file.jpg', 'new/file.jpg');

Storage::move('old/file.jpg', 'new/file.jpg');

File Uploads

In web applications, one of the most common use-cases for storing files is storing user uploaded files such as photos and documents. Laravel makes it very easy to store uploaded files using the store method on an uploaded file instance. Call the store method with the path at which you wish to store the uploaded file:

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;

class UserAvatarController extends Controller
{
    /**
     * Update the avatar for the user.
     *
     * @param  \Illuminate\Http\Request  $request
     * @return \Illuminate\Http\Response
     */
    public function update(Request $request)
    {
        $path = $request->file('avatar')->store('avatars');

        return $path;
    }
}

There are a few important things to note about this example. Note that we only specified a directory name, not a filename. By default, the store method will generate a unique ID to serve as the filename. The file's extension will be determined by examining the file's MIME type. The path to the file will be returned by the store method so you can store the path, including the generated filename, in your database.

You may also call the putFile method on the Storage facade to perform the same file storage operation as the example above:

$path = Storage::putFile('avatars', $request->file('avatar'));

Specifying A File Name

If you do not want a filename to be automatically assigned to your stored file, you may use the storeAs method, which receives the path, the filename, and the (optional) disk as its arguments:

$path = $request->file('avatar')->storeAs(
    'avatars', $request->user()->id
);

You may also use the putFileAs method on the Storage facade, which will perform the same file storage operation as the example above:

$path = Storage::putFileAs(
    'avatars', $request->file('avatar'), $request->user()->id
);

Note: note Unprintable and invalid unicode characters will automatically be removed from file paths. Therefore, you may wish to sanitize your file paths before passing them to Laravel's file storage methods. File paths are normalized using the League\Flysystem\Util::normalizePath method.

Specifying A Disk

By default, this uploaded file's store method will use your default disk. If you would like to specify another disk, pass the disk name as the second argument to the store method:

$path = $request->file('avatar')->store(
    'avatars/'.$request->user()->id, 's3'
);

If you are using the storeAs method, you may pass the disk name as the third argument to the method:

$path = $request->file('avatar')->storeAs(
    'avatars',
    $request->user()->id,
    's3'
);

Other Uploaded File Information

If you would like to get the original name and extension of the uploaded file, you may do so using the getClientOriginalName and getClientOriginalExtension methods:

$file = $request->file('avatar');

$name = $file->getClientOriginalName();
$extension = $file->getClientOriginalExtension();

However, keep in mind that the getClientOriginalName and getClientOriginalExtension methods are considered unsafe, as the file name and extension may be tampered with by a malicious user. For this reason, you should typically prefer the hashName and extension methods to get a name and an extension for the given file upload:

$file = $request->file('avatar');

$name = $file->hashName(); // Generate a unique, random name...
$extension = $file->extension(); // Determine the file's extension based on the file's MIME type...

File Visibility

In Laravel's Flysystem integration, "visibility" is an abstraction of file permissions across multiple platforms. Files may either be declared public or private. When a file is declared public, you are indicating that the file should generally be accessible to others. For example, when using the S3 driver, you may retrieve URLs for public files.

You can set the visibility when writing the file via the put method:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Storage;

Storage::put('file.jpg', $contents, 'public');

If the file has already been stored, its visibility can be retrieved and set via the getVisibility and setVisibility methods:

$visibility = Storage::getVisibility('file.jpg');

Storage::setVisibility('file.jpg', 'public');

When interacting with uploaded files, you may use the storePublicly and storePubliclyAs methods to store the uploaded file with public visibility:

$path = $request->file('avatar')->storePublicly('avatars', 's3');

$path = $request->file('avatar')->storePubliclyAs(
    'avatars',
    $request->user()->id,
    's3'
);

Local Files & Visibility

When using the local driver, public visibility translates to 0755 permissions for directories and 0644 permissions for files. You can modify the permissions mappings in your application's filesystems configuration file:

'local' => [
    'driver' => 'local',
    'root' => storage_path('app'),
    'permissions' => [
        'file' => [
            'public' => 0644,
            'private' => 0600,
        ],
        'dir' => [
            'public' => 0755,
            'private' => 0700,
        ],
    ],
],

Deleting Files

The delete method accepts a single filename or an array of files to delete:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Storage;

Storage::delete('file.jpg');

Storage::delete(['file.jpg', 'file2.jpg']);

If necessary, you may specify the disk that the file should be deleted from:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Storage;

Storage::disk('s3')->delete('path/file.jpg');

Directories

Get All Files Within A Directory

The files method returns an array of all of the files in a given directory. If you would like to retrieve a list of all files within a given directory including all subdirectories, you may use the allFiles method:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Storage;

$files = Storage::files($directory);

$files = Storage::allFiles($directory);

Get All Directories Within A Directory

The directories method returns an array of all the directories within a given directory. Additionally, you may use the allDirectories method to get a list of all directories within a given directory and all of its subdirectories:

$directories = Storage::directories($directory);

$directories = Storage::allDirectories($directory);

Create A Directory

The makeDirectory method will create the given directory, including any needed subdirectories:

Storage::makeDirectory($directory);

Delete A Directory

Finally, the deleteDirectory method may be used to remove a directory and all of its files:

Storage::deleteDirectory($directory);

Custom Filesystems

Laravel's Flysystem integration provides support for several "drivers" out of the box; however, Flysystem is not limited to these and has adapters for many other storage systems. You can create a custom driver if you want to use one of these additional adapters in your Laravel application.

In order to define a custom filesystem you will need a Flysystem adapter. Let's add a community maintained Dropbox adapter to our project:

composer require spatie/flysystem-dropbox

Next, you can register the driver within the boot method of one of your application's service providers. To accomplish this, you should use the extend method of the Storage facade:

<?php

namespace App\Providers;

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Storage;
use Illuminate\Support\ServiceProvider;
use League\Flysystem\Filesystem;
use Spatie\Dropbox\Client as DropboxClient;
use Spatie\FlysystemDropbox\DropboxAdapter;

class AppServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
{
    /**
     * Register any application services.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function register()
    {
        //
    }

    /**
     * Bootstrap any application services.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function boot()
    {
        Storage::extend('dropbox', function ($app, $config) {
            $client = new DropboxClient(
                $config['authorization_token']
            );

            return new Filesystem(new DropboxAdapter($client));
        });
    }
}

The first argument of the extend method is the name of the driver and the second is a closure that receives the $app and $config variables. The closure must return an instance of League\Flysystem\Filesystem. The $config variable contains the values defined in config/filesystems.php for the specified disk.

Once you have created and registered the extension's service provider, you may use the dropbox driver in your config/filesystems.php configuration file.