File Storage

PHP

Reference Manual

How to store and access files

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. Symbolic links are configured in /config/filesystems.php, to create the symlinks run the command php artisan storage:link, note that if you are running the application inside a container the command must be run from inside the container otherwise the link will be broken.

Code example on how to store an image

File System configuration file

<?php

return [
    ...

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

Route

<?php

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
use App\Http\Controllers\ImageController;

Route::group([
    "prefix" => "image",
    "controller" => ImageController::class],
    function() {
        Route::post(
            '',
            'create'
        )->name('createImage');

        Route::delete(
            '{id}',
            'delete'
        )->name('deleteImage');
    }
);

Controller

<?php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\Http\Response;
use Illuminate\Http\JsonResponse;

use App\Models\Image;

class ImageController extends Controller
{
    public function create(Request $request): JsonResponse
    {
        // Stores the image in storage/app/public/images/
        // $path will be equal to "images/<image-name>"
        $path = $request->file('image')->store('images', 'public');
        // Get the url at which the image can be publicly accessed
        // (in the public/storage directory where the symlink to
        // storage/app/public was created)
        $url = asset('storage/'.$imagePath);

        // Insert an image record in the DB.
        $image = Image::create([
            'path' => $path,
            'url' => $url
        ]);

        return response()->json($image, Response::HTTP_CREATED);
    }

    public function delete(Image $image): JsonResponse
    {
        $path = storage_path('app/public/').$image->path;

        $image->delete(); // Delete the image record from the DB.

        if (file_exists($path))
            unlink($path); // Delete the file.

        return response()->json(null, Response::HTTP_NO_CONTENT);
    }
}