Laravel File Uploader: A Production-Ready Guide

Uploading files in any application can be challenging. However, after reading this blog post, you will realize how simple and convenient it is in Laravel. So, let’s delve deeper into it.

After reading this post, you can easily create a helper function with proper error handling. This function can be used anywhere to upload a file with just two lines of code.

For example :

use App\Helpers\FileUploader;

FileUploader::uploadFile('your file', 'path to store', 'initials');

Just need to import a class and call a function statically with some parameters that will be needed for file upload.

Let’s begin.

Step 1: Creating a directory.
We will be creating a separate file for file uploading.

Inside your “app” directory create a folder “Helpers” and inside that create a separate file “FileUploader.php”. This will be the main file.

Step 2: Inserting a code for file uploading.
In the “FileUploader.php” file paste the below code.

<?php

namespace App\Helpers;

use Exception;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Log;

class FileUploader
{
    public static function uploadFile($file, string $path = "files", string $initials = "file"): string
    {
        try {
            $req_file = $initials . '-' . rand(1, 1000) . sha1(time()) . "." . $file->getClientOriginalExtension();
            $file = $file->move($path, $req_file);
            return  str_replace('\\', '/', $file);
        } catch (Exception  $e) {
            Log::info('Error in file uploader : ' . $e->getMessage());
            throw new Exception("File Uploading Error: " . $e->getMessage());
        }
    }
}

This code may seem complex at first but, it’s quite simple. I’ve kept it as straightforward as possible.

A short explanation of the code above:

A unique filename is generated by combining the $initials string (default "files"), a random number between 1 and 1000, the SHA-1 hash of the current timestamp (time()), and the file’s original extension.
The file is moved to the specified directory $path (default "files") with the generated filename $req_file.
The file path is returned with backslashes (\) replaced by forward slashes (/) for proper file uploading.
If an error occurs, it logs the error message (Log::info) and throws a new exception with a custom message (File Uploading Error).

I hope you understand the above code, now let’s proceed further.

Step 3: Calling a recently created class and a function for file uploading.
It’s time to use the function we created for file uploading.

use App\Models\User;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use App\Helpers\FileUploader;

public function store(Request $request){
  $storeUser = new User();
  $storeUser->name = $request->name;
  $storeUser->image = FileUploader::uploadFile($request->image, 'files/images/user');
  $storeUser->save(); 
}

This is it. Finally, you just created a Helper function which can be used anywhere throughout your application.

Feel free to comment if you have any recommendations.

Keep coding and exploring ❤️

Laravel File Uploader: A Production-Ready Guide

By wasdevlab