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Multiple File Uploads In Laravel PHP

13th July 2020 5 mins read

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In this article, we will learn how to do Multiple File Uploads In PHP Laravel.

We will cover the following topics

Laravel Installation
Local Server Starting
Web Routes And Controllers
HTML Form For File Uploading
Handle File Upload In Controller
Complete Controller Code

Step 1 - Laravel Installation

If you already have the Laravel application skip to Step 2 else let's install the Laravel application with composer using the following command

composer create-project --prefer-dist laravel/laravel blog

The above command creates a new Laravel project with a name blog.

Step 2 - Local Server

For the sake of demonstration I will keep the settings very simple, to run our project I will start the PHP built-in server with the help of artisan command as follows

php artisan serve

You will be able to see similar to the following output.

Laravel development server started: <http://127.0.0.1:8000>

Now you can run your application by running http://localhost:8000 or http://127.0.0.1:8000 from your web browser.

Step 3 - Web Routes And Controllers

I have created the FileUploadsController which will handle view page redirects and mange file uploading after uploading from view page.

Controller - FileUploadsController

php artisan make:controller FileUploadsController

web.php

Route::get('/file-uploads/create', 'FileUploadsController@create');
Route::post('/file-uploads', 'FileUploadsController@store');

Step 4 - HTML Form For File Uploading

Let's see how our file uploading form looks like. For the sake of demonstration, I am just using only one field.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>Form Upload</title>
    <!-- Latest compiled and minified CSS -->
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/css/bootstrap.min.css">
</head>
<body>
    <div class="container">
        <div class="row">
            <div class="col-md-4 col-md-offset-4">
                <h2 class="text-primary">File Upload Demo</h2>
                <form action="{{ url('file-uploads') }}" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
                    @csrf
                    <div class="row">
                        <div class="col-md-12 form-group">
                            <label for="attachments"></label>
                            <input type="file" name="attachments[]" multiple id="attachments" class="form:control">
                        </div>
                    </div>
                    <br>
                    <div class="row">
                        <div class="col-md-12 form-group">
                            <input type="submit" value="Upload File" class="btn btn-primary">
                        </div>
                    </div>
                </form>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
</body>

</html>

Make sure not to skip enctype attribute in your form opening tag

<form action="{{ url('file-uploads') }}" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">

Observer name="attachments[]" array and multiple attribute for input element

<input type="file" name="attachments[]" multiple id="attachments" class="form:control">

NOTE: If you want to select multiple files while upload the files then use Control + Click / Command + Click / Shift + Arrow Keys

If you now run this http://localhost:8000/file-uploads/create URL in your browser you will be able to similar to the following output

File Upload Demo

Step 5 - Handle File Upload In Controller

In this step lets handle the file submitted from the above file. First, let's see the full implementation then we will break down the code to understand.

public function store()
{
    /** Even request()->has('attachment') works */
    if (request()->hasFile('attachments')) {
        /** This is of type file */
        $attachments = request()->file('attachments');
        
        /** Loop multiple files for uploading */
        foreach ($attachments as $key => $attachment) {
            /** Laravel file helper methods */
            $attachmentExtension    = $attachment->getClientOriginalExtension();
            $attachmentMimeType     = $attachment->getClientMimeType();
            $attachmentName         = $attachment->getClientOriginalName();
            $attachmentSize         = $attachment->getClientSize();


            /** New attachment name, v - milliseconds */
            $attachmentNewName = 'attachment' . $key . date('YmdHisv') . '.' . $attachmentExtension;


            /** Instead of storage I will demo you storing in PUBLIC path same as that of assets folder */
            $uploadPath = public_path() . '/uploads/attachments/';
            $attachment->move($uploadPath, $attachmentNewName);
        }


        echo 'Upload completed';
    }
}

Let's break down the above gigantic code

Check If Form Request Has Attachment (I usually prefer first one)

if(request()->hasFile('attachments')) {
}

if(request()->has('attachments')) {
}

Basically Looping All The Files For Upload

/** Loop multiple files for uploading */
foreach ($attachments as $key => $attachment) {
   
}

Laravel File Helper Methods

/** Laravel file helper methods */
$attachment->getClientOriginalExtension(); /** png */
$attachment->getClientMimeType(); /** image/png */
$attachment->getClientOriginalName(); /** testing.png */
$attachment->getClientSize(); /** 23422 */

With the help of the above file helpers you can check the size of the file, check the image extensions and do a lot of other validations as per your needs.

Tip: You can do this validations in require()->validate()

You can also use Intervention Image package to mange image related operations very easily.

New File Name - You can use any other way too

/** New attachment name, v - milliseconds */
$attachmentNewName = 'attachment' . $key . date('YmdHisv') . '.' . $attachmentExtension;

Other ways to generate unique id's are - time(), uniqid(), md5(time())

You can use this new attachment name to store in your database to display later in your view pages like the following

Note: The following is for the sake of demonstration, you may have different Model name and fields

Attachment::create([
    'name' => $attachmentNewName
]);

Public Path - Not In Storage Path

/** Instead of storage I will demo you storing in PUBLIC path same as that of assets folder */
$uploadPath = public_path() . '/uploads/attachments/';

Instead of storage I will demo you storing in PUBLIC path same as that of assets folder

Specifying A Disk (From Laravel Docs)

By default, this 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'
);

Step 6 - Complete Controller Code

Following is the complete code of the controller. Tried my best to explain in comments

class FileUploadsController extends Controller
{
    public function create()
    {
        return view('file-uploads.create');
    }


    public function store()
    {
        /** Even request()->has('attachment') works */
        if (request()->hasFile('attachments')) {
            /** This is of type file */
            $attachments = request()->file('attachments');
            
            foreach ($attachments as $key => $attachment) {
                /** Laravel file helper methods */
                $attachmentExtension    = $attachment->getClientOriginalExtension();
                $attachmentMimeType     = $attachment->getClientMimeType();
                $attachmentName         = $attachment->getClientOriginalName();
                $attachmentSize         = $attachment->getClientSize();


                /** New attachment name, v - milliseconds */
                $attachmentNewName = 'attachment' . $key . date('YmdHisv') . '.' . $attachmentExtension;


                /** Instead of storage I will demo you storing in PUBLIC path same as that of assets folder */
                $uploadPath = public_path() . '/uploads/attachments/';
                $attachment->move($uploadPath, $attachmentNewName);
            }


            echo 'Upload completed';
        }
    }
}

Conclusion

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AUTHOR

Channaveer Hakari

I am a full-stack developer working at WifiDabba India Pvt Ltd. I started this blog so that I can share my knowledge and enhance my skills with constant learning.

Never stop learning. If you stop learning, you stop growing