File Uploading Class

ExpressionEngine’s File Uploading Class permits files to be uploaded. You can set various preferences, restricting the type and size of the files.

The Process

Uploading a file involves the following general process:

• An upload form is displayed, allowing a user to select a file and upload it.
• When the form is submitted, the file is uploaded to the destination you specify.
• Along the way, the file is validated to make sure it is allowed to be uploaded based on the preferences you set.
• Once uploaded, the user will be shown a success message.

To demonstrate this process here is brief tutorial. Afterward you’ll find reference information.

Creating the Upload Form

Create a view called upload_form.php. In it, place this code and save it to your addon/views/ directory:

<?php echo $error;?>
<?php echo form_open_multipart('upload/do_upload');?>
<input type="file" name="userfile" size="20" />
<br /><br />
<input type="submit" value="upload" />
</form>

You’ll notice we are using a form helper to create the opening form tag. File uploads require a multipart form, so the helper creates the proper syntax for you. You’ll also notice we have an $error variable. This is so we can show error messages in the event the user does something wrong.

The Success Page

Create a view called upload_success.php. In it, place this code and save it to your addon/views/ directory:

<h3>Your file was successfully uploaded!</h3>

<ul>
<?php foreach ($upload_data as $item => $value):?>
    <li><?php echo $item;?>: <?php echo $value;?></li>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</ul>

<p><?php echo anchor('upload', 'Upload Another File!'); ?></p>

The Controller

Inside your controller (most likely in a mcp.addon.php file) you’ll need to add a few methods. First create a method to display your upload_form.php view:

public function index()
{
    ee()->load->view('upload_form', array('error' => ' ' ));
}

Then, you’ll need to create a method to handle the form:

public function do_upload()
{
    $config['upload_path']   = './uploads/';
    $config['allowed_types'] = 'gif|jpg|png';
    $config['max_size']      = 100;
    $config['max_width']     = 1024;
    $config['max_height']    = 768;

    ee()->load->library('upload', $config);

    if ( ! ee()->upload->do_upload())
    {
        $error = array('error' => ee()->upload->display_errors());

        ee()->load->view('upload_form', $error);
    }
    else
    {
        $data = array('upload_data' => ee()->upload->data());

        ee()->load->view('upload_success', $data);
    }
}

Inside that method, you can see that we’re initializing the Upload library and checking to see if the upload was sucessful. If not, we kick back to the upload_form.php view.

The Upload Directory

You’ll need a destination directory for your uploaded images, most likely created by the person installing your add-on. If you’re only using the file temporarily, you can use the PATH_CACHE constant.

Reference Guide

Initializing the Upload Class

Like most other classes in ExpressionEngine, the Upload class is initialized in your controller using the ee()->load->library() method:

ee()->load->library('upload');

Setting Preferences

Similar to other libraries, you’ll control what is allowed to be upload based on your preferences. In the controller you built above you set the following preferences:

$config['upload_path'] = './uploads/';
$config['allowed_types'] = 'gif|jpg|png';
$config['max_size'] = '100';
$config['max_width'] = '1024';
$config['max_height'] = '768';

ee()->load->library('upload', $config);

// Alternately you can set preferences by calling the ``initialize()`` method. Useful if you auto-load the class:
ee()->upload->initialize($config);

The above preferences should be fairly self-explanatory. Below is a table describing all available preferences.

Preferences

The following preferences are available. The default value indicates what will be used if you do not specify that preference.

Class Reference

class EE_Upload

initialize([array $config = array()[, $reset = TRUE]])

do_upload([$field = 'userfile'])

Performs the upload based on the preferences you’ve set.

Note: By default the upload routine expects the file to come from a form field called userfile, and the form must be of type multipart.

<form method="post" action="some_action" enctype="multipart/form-data" />

If you would like to set your own field name simply pass its value to the do_upload() method:

$field_name = "some_field_name";
ee()->upload->do_upload($field_name);

display_errors([$open = '<p>'[, $close = '</p>']])

Retrieves any error messages if the do_upload() method returned false. The method does not echo automatically, it returns the data so you can assign it however you need.

Formatting Errors

By default the above method wraps any errors within <p> tags. You can set your own delimiters like this:

 ee()->upload->display_errors('<p>', '</p>');

data([$index = NULL])

This is a helper method that returns an array containing all of the data related to the file you uploaded. Here is the array prototype:

Array
(
    [file_name] => mypic.jpg
    [file_type] => image/jpeg
    [file_path] => /path/to/your/upload/
    [full_path] => /path/to/your/upload/jpg.jpg
    [raw_name]  => mypic
    [orig_name] => mypic.jpg
    [client_name]   => mypic.jpg
    [file_ext]  => .jpg
    [file_size] => 22.2
    [is_image]  => 1
    [image_width]   => 800
    [image_height]  => 600
    [image_type]    => jpeg
    [image_size_str] => width="800" height="200"
)

To return one element from the array:

ee()->upload->data('file_name');    // Returns: mypic.jpg

Here’s a table explaining the above-displayed array items:

ExpressionEngine 6 Docs
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