Laravel File Handling

The thing I like best about Laravel is its elegance.  As far as I'm concerned, it is the cleanest framework out there, even with its limitations.  So I just had to write this post about how I handle files in Laravel.  Note that the storage path can be configured to local storage or to an S3 bucket.

First, we need a route for opening the file in our routes.php file:

	// Open a file
	Route::get('file/{id}', 'HomeController@getFile');

Then, in our home controller, the related function:

	/** * Open file
	*/
	public function getFile($filename)
	{
	// Full path
	$path = storage_path('app/' . $filename);
	// Determine the mime type
	$mimetype = mime_content_type($path);
	// Return the file
	return response()->file($path, ['Content-Type: ' . $mimetype . '; charset=utf-8']);
	}




That's it!  When you hit that URL route, the file will automatically open.

If you aren't sure whether your environment supports the mime_content_type() function, you can add a little bit of extra code (this part comes from php.net):

	/** * Open a file
	*/
	public function getFile($filename)
	{
	// Full path
	$path = storage_path('app/' . $filename);
	// Determine the mime type
	if (function_exists('mime_content_type')) {
	$mimetype = mime_content_type($path);
	} else {
	$mime_types = [
	'txt' => 'text/plain',
	'htm' => 'text/html',
	'html' => 'text/html',
	'php' => 'text/html',
	'css' => 'text/css',
	'js' => 'application/javascript',
	'json' => 'application/json',
	'xml' => 'application/xml',
	'swf' => 'application/x-shockwave-flash',
	'flv' => 'video/x-flv',
	// images
	'png' => 'image/png',
	'jpe' => 'image/jpeg',
	'jpeg' => 'image/jpeg',
	'jpg' => 'image/jpeg',
	'gif' => 'image/gif',
	'bmp' => 'image/bmp',
	'ico' => 'image/vnd.microsoft.icon',
	'tiff' => 'image/tiff',
	'tif' => 'image/tiff',
	'svg' => 'image/svg+xml',
	'svgz' => 'image/svg+xml',
	// archives
	'zip' => 'application/zip',
	'rar' => 'application/x-rar-compressed',
	'exe' => 'application/x-msdownload',
	'msi' => 'application/x-msdownload',
	'cab' => 'application/vnd.ms-cab-compressed',
	// audio/video
	'mp3' => 'audio/mpeg',
	'qt' => 'video/quicktime',
	'mov' => 'video/quicktime',
	// adobe
	'pdf' => 'application/pdf',
	'psd' => 'image/vnd.adobe.photoshop',
	'ai' => 'application/postscript',
	'eps' => 'application/postscript',
	'ps' => 'application/postscript',
	// ms office
	'doc' => 'application/msword',
	'docx' => 'application/msword',
	'xls' => 'application/vnd.ms-excel',
	'xlsx' => 'application/vnd.ms-excel',
	'ppt' => 'application/vnd.ms-powerpoint',
	'pptx' => 'application/vnd.ms-powerpoint',
	'rtf' => 'application/rtf',
	// open office
	'odt' => 'application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text',
	'ods' => 'application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet',
	];
	// Get extension
	$ext = strtolower(array_pop(explode('.', $filename)));
	// Match to mime type
	if (array_key_exists($ext, $mime_types)) {
	$mimetype = $mime_types[$ext];
	} else {
	$mimetype = 'application/octet-stream';
	}
	}
	// Return the file
	return response()->file($path, ['Content-Type: ' . $mimetype . '; charset=utf-8']);
	}