Filesystem / Cloud Storage

Configuration

The filesystem configuration file is located at config/filesystems.php. Within this file you may configure all of your “disks”. Each disk represents a particular storage driver and storage location. Example configurations for each supported driver is included in the configuration file. So, simply modify the configuration to reflect your storage preferences and credentials!

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

Amazon S3: league/flysystem-aws-s3-v2 ~1.0
Rackspace: league/flysystem-rackspace ~1.0

Of course, you may configure as many disks as you like, and may even have multiple disks that use the same driver.

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

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

Basic Usage

The Storage facade may be used to interact with any of your configured disks. Alternatively, you may type-hint the Illuminate\Contracts\Filesystem\Factory contract on any class that is resolved via the Laravel service container.

Retrieving A Particular Disk

$disk = Storage::disk('s3');

$disk = Storage::disk('local');

Determining If A File Exists

$exists = Storage::disk('s3')->exists('file.jpg');

Calling Methods On The Default Disk

if (Storage::exists('file.jpg'))
{
    //
}

Retrieving A File’s Contents

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

Setting A File’s Contents

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

Prepend To A File

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

Append To A File

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

Delete A File

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

Storage::delete(['file1.jpg', 'file2.jpg']);

Copy A File To A New Location

Storage::copy('old/file1.jpg', 'new/file1.jpg');

Move A File To A New Location

Storage::move('old/file1.jpg', 'new/file1.jpg');

Get File Size

$size = Storage::size('file1.jpg');

Get The Last Modification Time (UNIX)

$time = Storage::lastModified('file1.jpg');

Get All Files Within A Directory

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

// Recursive...
$files = Storage::allFiles($directory);

Get All Directories Within A Directory

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

// Recursive...
$directories = Storage::allDirectories($directory);

Create A Directory

Storage::makeDirectory($directory);

Delete A Directory

Storage::deleteDirectory($directory);

Custom Filesystems

Laravel’s Flysystem integration provides drivers 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. Don’t worry, it’s not too hard!

In order to set up the custom filesystem you will need to create a service provider such as DropboxFilesystemServiceProvider. In the provider’s boot method, you can inject an instance of the Illuminate\Contracts\Filesystem\Factory contract and call the extend method of the injected instance. Alternatively, you may use the Disk facade’s extend method.

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 resolver Closure must return an instance of League\Flysystem\Filesystem.

Note: The $config variable will already contain the values defined in config/filesystems.php for the specified disk.

Dropbox Example

<?php namespace App\Providers;

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

class DropboxFilesystemServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider {

    public function boot()
    {
        Storage::extend('dropbox', function($app, $config)
        {
            $client = new DropboxClient($config['accessToken'], $config['clientIdentifier']);

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

    public function register()
    {
        //
    }

}

Creating symbolic link in a web server using SSH

In Laravel documentation, a symbolic link (symlink or soft link) from public/storage to storage/app/public should be created to make files accessible from the web.

(THIS PROCEDURE WILL CREATE SYMBOLIC LINK WITHIN THE LARAVEL PROJECT DIRECTORY)

Here are the steps on how you can create symbolic link in your Linux web server using SSH client:

Connect and login to your web server using SSH client (e.g. PUTTY).
Link storage/app/public to public/storage using the syntax

ln -s target_path link_path

Example (in CPanel File Directory)

ln -s /home/cpanel_username/project_name/storage/app/public /home/cpanel_sername/project_name/public/storage

(A folder named storage will be created to link path with an indicator >>> on the folder icon.)