ExpressionEngine Docs

# File Module

- File Entries Tag
- Parameters
- Variables
- Categories Variable Pair
- Conditionals
- Pagination

The File Module allows you to display data associated with the files in your File Upload Directories.

In addition, the File module supports Pagination.

## File Entries Tag

Note: If you’re looking for how to use file fields in your channel entries loops, you should look at the file field variable usage documentation in the channel fields documentation.

The File Entries tag allows you to display files and their associated meta-data on the frontend through the use of standard ExpressionEngine tags.

Here is a simple example of a possible usage of this tag:

    {exp:file:entries limit="20" paginate="both" directory_id="3"}
      <p><strong>{title}</strong> - posted: {entry_date format='%h:%i %A'}</p>

      {categories}
        {category_image} - <a href="{path='about/test'}">{category_name}</a><br>
      {/categories}

      {if url:small}
        <p><a href="{id_path='gallery/comments'}"><img src="{url:small}" width="{width:small}" height="{height:small}" alt="{title}" title="{title}" /></a></p>
      {/if}

      {description}
    {/exp:file:entries}

## Parameters

- `category=`
- `category_group=`
- `directory_id=`
- `disable=`
- `dynamic=`
- `file_id=`
- `limit=`
- `orderby=`
- `relaxed_categories=`
- `sort=`
- `uncategorized_entries=`

### `category=`

    category="2"

Categories are specified by ID number (the ID number of each category is displayed in the Control Panel). The reason we use the ID is because categories can be called anything (with spaces, quotes, etc.), and also renamed. It would be much more difficult to have to update the tag parameters every time you updated a category name. Further, you can have multiple categories with the same name either in different Category Groups or in different parts of the hierarchy within the same Category Group.

And as with some of the other parameters, you can stack categories to get entries with any of those categories:

    category="2|45|4|9"

Or use “not” to exclude categories

    category="not 4|5|7"

Note: When you use the category=”3|4” parameter (not excluding), you are implicitly telling ExpressionEngine to only deal with entries that have been assigned one or more categories. If you have entries that haven’t been categorized then they will be ignored and not included in the results. However, if you are using exclusion (`category="not 3|4"`), then you will be shown all entries without those categories including those without any categories assigned. To change this behavior when excluding categories use the uncategorized_entries= parameter.

Note: Using this parameter will automatically cause ExpressionEngine to ignore any category information specified via the URL. For instance, if you are on a “category page” (e.g. a “/C13/“ segment in the URL) that will be completely ignored in favor of whatever you have specified via the parameter.

### `category_group=`

    category_group="2"

Category Groups are specified by ID number (the ID number of each category group is displayed in the Control Panel). The reason we use the ID is because category groups can be called anything (with spaces, quotes, etc.), and also renamed. It would be much more difficult to have to update the tag parameters every time you updated a category name.

And as with some of the other parameters, you can stack category groups:

    category_group="1|2|4"

Or use “not” to exclude categories

    category_group="not 2"

Note: Using this parameter will automatically cause ExpressionEngine to ignore any category information specified via the URL. For instance, if you are on a “category page” (e.g. a “/C13/“ segment in the URL) that will be completely ignored in favor of whatever you have specified via the parameter.

### `directory_id=`

    directory_id="3"

From which file upload directory to show the files (will show files from any directory if none is specified). Additionally, you can use the pipe character to separate multiple directories:

    directory_id="1|2|3"

Or you can add the word “not” (with a space after it) to exclude directories:

    directory_id="not 1|2|3"

### `disable=`

    disable="categories"

The disable= parameter allows you to turn off aspects of the tag that you might not be using in order to improve performance. The File tag is designed to fetch a lot of information by default, but through the use of the “disable” parameter you can turn off aspects of the tag in order to make it more lightweight.

The syntax for the disable parameter is this: disable=”ITEM YOU WANT TO DISABLE”. The following items can be turned off:

- categories
- pagination

Note: If you disable categories, category fields will automatically be disabled.

You may specify multiple items to disable by separating them with the pipe character:

    disable="categories|pagination"

The best approach is to examine the data you are showing in each instance of the tag. If there is a type of data you are not utilizing, turn it off.

### `dynamic=`

    dynamic="no"

The file display engine sets some parameters dynamically, based on what is in the URL. There are times, however, where you do not want the parameters affected by what the URL contains. To override the dynamic nature of the file tag, use dynamic=”no”.

### `file_id=`

    file_id="22"

You can hard code the file entries tag to show specific files. You may also specify multiple files by separating them with the pipe character. This parameter takes precedence over any entry specified in the url.

### `limit=`

    limit="30"

Allows you to limit the number of files. The limit will default to 100 if a value is not specified. If you are using pagination then this will determine the number of files shown per page.

### `orderby=`

    orderby="date"

The “order” parameter sets the display order of the files. Setting options for this parameter include:

- orderby=”date”
- orderby=”random”

### `relaxed_categories=`

    relaxed_categories="yes"

This parameter allows you to use the category indicator in your URLs with an entries tag specifying multiple channels that do not share category groups.

### `sort=`

    sort="desc"

The sort order can be “asc” (ascending order or “oldest item first” for dates) or “desc” (descending order or “newest item first” for dates). If you do not use a sort order the default is desc.

### `uncategorized_entries=`

    uncategorized_entries="no"

By default, when specifying the category= parameter with ‘not ‘ at the beginning , ExpressionEngine will show all files without those categories including any files without categories assigned. If you would prefer that ExpressionEngine not show these uncategorized files, then set this parameter to “no” and they will be ignored.

## Variables

- `{absolute_count}`
- `{count}`
- `{credit}`
- `{description}`
- `{directory_id}`
- `{directory_title}`
- `{extension}`
- `{file_id}`
- `{file_name}`
- `{file_size}`
- `{file_url}`
- `{height}`
- `{id_path}`
- `{location}`
- `{mime_type}`
- `{modified_date}`
- `{path}`
- `{switch=}`
- `{title}`
- `{total_results}`
- `{upload_date}`
- `{url}`
- `{width}`

### `{absolute_count}`

The absolute “count” out of the current file being displayed by the tag, including those files on previous pages (if using pagination).

If five entries are being displayed per page, then for the fourth entry on the second page the {absolute_count} variable would have a value of “9”.

### `{count}`

The “count” out of the current file being displayed by the tag on the current page.

If five entries are being displayed per page, then for the fourth entry on the page the {count} variable would have a value of “4”.

### `{credit}`

The credit information associated with the entry, typically used for photo attributions.

### `{description}`

The description associated with the entry.

### `{directory_id}`

The ID number of the file upload directory

### `{directory_title}`

This variable simply displays the content from the “Descriptive name of upload directory” setting for the directory that the file is in.

### `{extension}`

The file’s extension, if it has one.

### `{file_id}`

The unique id of the file.

### `{file_name}`

The full name of the file (including its extension).

### `{file_size}`

The size of the file (in bytes). To display the size in a human friendly manner, (e.g. `147KB`) use:

    {file_size:human}

This includes the appropriate `<abbr>` HTML tag. Or, if you prefer to have the units spelled out, (e.g. `147 kilobytes`), use:

    {file_size:human_long}

If you have defined any image manipulations you can modify this tag with the Short Name of the manipulation. For example, if you’ve defined a “small” manipulation, the following will output the file size of that version:

    {file_size:small}
    {file_size:small:human}
    {file_size:small:human_long}

### `{file_url}`

The URL to the file.

### `{height}`

The height (in pixels) of the full-size image. (Empty for non-image files.)

If you have defined any image manipulations you can modify this tag with the Short Name of the manipulation. For example, if you’ve defined a “small” manipulation, the following will output the height of that version:

    {height:small}

### `{id_path}`

    {id_path='gallery/full_image'}

The URL to the specified template. The ID number of the entry will be automatically added. For example, this:

    <a href="{id_path='gallery/full_image'}">my picture</a>

Would be rendered like this:

    <a href="https://example.com/gallery/full_image/234/">my picture</a>

### `{location}`

The user-defined geographic location information associated with the entry, typically used for photos.

### `{mime_type}`

The automatically-detected MIME type of the file.

### `{modified_date}`

    {modified_date format="%Y %m %d"}

The date on which the file was edited through the system. As with other date variables, these require the “format” parameter in order to define how the date should be displayed. See the date variable formatting page for more information.

### `{path}`

The URL to the folder containing the file, including a trailing slash.

### `{switch=}`

    {switch="option_one|option_two|option_three"}

This variable permits you to rotate through any number of values as the entries are displayed. The first entry will use “option_one”, the second will use “option_two”, the third “option_three”, the fourth “option_one”, and so on.

The most straightforward use for this would be to alternate colors. It could be used like so:

    {exp:file:entries} <div class="{switch="one|two"}"> <h1>{filename}</h1> {description} </div> {/exp:file:entries}

The entries would then alternate between <div class=”one”> and <div class=”two”>.

Multiple instances of the {switch=} tag may be used and the system will intelligently keep track of each one.

### `{title}`

The title of the entry.

### `{total_results}`

The total number of files being displayed by this tag on the current page.

### `{upload_date}`

    {upload_date format="%Y %m %d"}

The date when the file was uploaded. As with other date variables, these require the “format” parameter in order to define how the date should be displayed. See the date variable formatting page for more information.

### `{url}`

The full URL to the file.

If you have defined any image manipulations you can modify this tag with the Short Name of the manipulation. For example, if you’ve defined a “small” manipulation, the following will output the URL to that version:

    {url:small}

### `{width}`

The width (in pixels) of the full-size image. (Empty for non-image files.)

If you have defined any image manipulations you can modify this tag with the Short Name of the manipulation. For example, if you’ve defined a “small” manipulation, the following will output the width of that version:

    {width:small}

## Categories Variable Pair

    {categories}
      {category_image} <a href="{path='gallery/index'}">{category_name}</a>
    {/categories}

Categories are a “looping pair”. Since you can have multiple categories per file, we need a mechanism to show as many categories as exist for each file.

The backspace parameter is also supported. For example, if you put a <br /> tag after each category you’ll have this:

    Local News<br />          Health News<br />  Science News<br />

You might, however, not want the <br /> tag after the final item. Simply count the number of characters (including spaces and line breaks) you want to remove and add the backspace parameter to the tag. The <br /> tag has 6 characters plus a new line character, so you would do this:

    {categories backspace="7"}    {category_name}<br /> {/categories}

That will produce code like this:

    Local News<br />             Health News<br />        Science News

### `{category_description}`

The description associated with the category.

### `{category_group}`

The category group ID of the category.

### `{category_id}`

The category ID associated with the category.

### `{parent_id}`

The category ID associated with the category’s parent (or 0 in the case of a top level category).

### `{category_image}`

The image link (or other information) you can optionally store with each category within the Control Panel.

### `{category_name}`

This displays the name of the category.

### `{category_url_title}`

This variable displays the URL title of the category

### `{path=''}`

    {path='gallery/index'}

This variable will be replaced by a URL to the specifies Template Group/Template. The category designation information will automatically be added to the end of the URL so that the target page will know which category to display.

If you want the category links to point to your site index instead of a particular template group/template you can use SITE_INDEX instead:

    {categories}  <a href="{path='SITE_INDEX'}">{category_name}</a>  {/categories}

### Custom Category Fields

All custom fields assigned to a category can be accessed using the “short name” of the field:

    {class} {extended_description} {category_name_fr} etc..

These are totally dynamic in that any field you create for your category will automatically be available by its “short name” as a variable.

## Conditionals

Conditionals work in the file tag:

    {if name=="bozo"}  You've got a big nose!  {/if}

### `if viewable_image`

    {if viewable_image} content {/if}

You may use this conditional to identify images viewable in the browser (‘bmp’,’gif’,’jpeg’,’jpg’,’jpe’,’png’), particularly useful for image tags.

### `if no_results`

    {if no_results} content {/if}

You may use this conditional for displaying a message in the case when no files are returned. The contents inside of the conditional will be displayed in cases where there are no results returned for the tag.

    {if no_results}  <p>There are no current files to view.</p>  {/if}

Further, you may specify that another Template be shown in a case when there are no results. In order to do that, you must use the redirect= variable:

    {if no_results} {redirect="site/noresult"} {/if}

## Pagination

The File module supports Pagination.