#4 Upchuck
Upchuck is a simple, automatic handler of file uploads for Laravel’s Eloquent models using using Flysystem. It does not attempt to do anything besides let the developer treat file uploads like regular input fields. It does this by listening to Eloquent saving
events, checking the request input for files with names that you have whitelisted, pushing those files to “disk” of your choosing, and then storing the publically accessible URL in the model attribute for that input.
Installation
- Add to your project:
composer require bkwld/upchuck:~1.0
- Add Upchuck as a provider in your app/config/app.php’s provider list:
'BkwldUpchuckServiceProvider',
- Publish the config:
php artisan config:publish bkwld/upchuck
Usage
Edit the disk
config setting to supply configuration information for where uploads should be moved. We are using Graham Campbell’s Flysystem integration for Laravel to instantiate Flysystem instances, so the configruation of the disk
matches his configuration options for connections. As the comments in the config file mention, I recommend turning on caching if you are using any disk other than local
. For both caching and other disk drivers, you will need to include other packages.
Then, to enable upload support for your models, use the BkwldUpchuckSupportsUploads
trait on your model and itemize each attribute that should support uploads via the $upload_attributes
property. For example:
class Person extends Eloquent {
// Use the trait
use BkwldUpchuckSupportsUploads;
// Define the uploadable attributes
protected $upload_attributes = [
// Both the file input field and the model attribute are named "image"
'image',
// The input file field is named "portrait" but the model attribute is
// named "headshot"
'portrait' => 'headshot',
];
// Since the upload handling happens via model events, it acts like a mass
// assignment. As such, Upchuck sets attributes via `fill()` so you can
// control the setting.
protected $fillable = ['image', 'headshot'];
}
Resizing images
If your app supports uploading files you are probably also dealing with needing to resize uploaded images. We (BKWLD) use our Croppa package to resize images using specially formatted URLs. If you are looking for an model-upload package that also resizes images, you might want to check out Stapler.
Deleting images
If you update a model attribute to a false-y value, Upchuck will delete the old referenced file. Thus, if your app allows users to delete files, consider using markup like: