ExpressionEngine® User Guide

Legacy Documentation

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Create/Edit Upload Directory

Control Panel Location: Files ‣ New/Edit

Here you can create and edit upload directories, changing the URL and path of the files, along with restricting the types, the default modal view, the maximum file size, image height and width, and image manipulations.

Permission Restrictions

  • File upload directories: Create Upload Directories
  • File upload directories: Edit Upload Directories
  • File upload directories: Delete Upload Directories

Fields

Name

This is the descriptive name of the upload destination. It is a required field and must be unique, but spaces are allowed. This name will appear when uploading files via the PUBLISH page.

Upload directory

Note

We recommend using the default base URL variable {base_url} defined in URL and Path Settings in your directory URLS.

The full URL to the new destination. For example:

{base_url}/images/uploads/

Upload path

Note

We recommend using the default base path variable {base_path} defined in URL and Path Settings in your directory paths.

The full server path (not a URL) to the upload folder for this destination. For example:

{base_path}/images/uploads/

If you are not sure how to determine your server path please contact your hosting company.

Allowed file types?

This preference will determine how the system handles the uploaded files. You have two choices for this preference:

  1. Images only: With this preference set, the system will only allow image files of the type GIF, JPG, JPEG, or PNG.
  2. All file types: This option will allow you to upload files of any type to the system. Be careful with this setting since it could be possible for someone to upload a malicious file.

Note

Only file types that are specified in ExpressionEngine’s Mime Type file are allowed to be uploaded. The Mime Type file can be found at: system/ee/legacy/config/mimes.php.

If you are uploading something uncommon and run into problems you may need to add the mime type for your file to the whitelist in the configuration file found at: system/user/config/config.php. See MIME whitelist and Mime member exception whitelist for available options.

Default modal view?

Default view for this upload directory in the file picker modal.

File size

You can optionally set a maximum allowed size for uploaded file. Leave the setting blank if you do not wish to impose a limit. The size is defined in kilobytes.

Note

Servers usually also have built-in limits on the amount of data that can be uploaded via PHP at one time. The default value for this in PHP is 2 MB. If you have a need to upload very large files, then you should contact your Host or server admin and talk to them about any size limits they have in place.

Image width

You can optionally set the maximum allowed width for uploaded images, images over this setting will be automatically resized. both this setting and the maximum height setting blank if you do not with to impose a limit. The size is defined in pixels. This option only applies to uploaded images and not other file types.

Note

If either the maximum height or maximum width is set and the other left blank, images that exceed the specified setting will still be resized, using the specified setting as the master dimension.

Image height

You can optionally set the maximum allowed height for uploaded images, images over this setting will be automatically resized. Leave both this setting and the maximum width setting blank if you do not with to impose a limit. The size is defined in pixels. This option only applies to uploaded images and not other file types.

Constrain or Crop

This area allows you to specify one or more alternate versions of an image that automatically get created when the original image is uploaded. A manipulation can include a resized version, a watermark, or both.

The resize type will determine whether the image is constrained (resized) or cropped to the specified dimensions. If only height or width is specified, the thumbnails will be created using that as the master dimension. For example, setting the height to 200 and leaving the width blank will result in an image that is no higher than 200 pixels, with the width resized proportionately. Setting both the height and the width to 200 would result in an image that is no higher or wider than 200 pixels.

You can refer to a particular Image Manipulation in your templates via a File Field’s single variable tag or its variable pair tag.

Short Name

Short name of this manipulation

Type

Type of manipulation

Width

Final width of image

Height

Final height of image

Watermark

Add a watermark

Allowed member groups

This setting allows you to specify which member groups have permission to upload files to this file upload destination. By default, only the “Members” group and any user-created member groups are listed. Super Admins can always upload files.

Allowed category groups

Files may be assigned to specific categories, just like entries are. Here you can specify which category groups you want to make available to files in this upload directory. Images can be displayed by category using the doc:File Module </add-ons/file/index>.