MeioUpload Behavior - An improved File Upload Behavior for CakePHP

Oct 04 2008

MeioUpload Behavior – An improved File Upload Behavior for CakePHP

vbmendes @ 12:21

MeioUpload Behavior is an improved File Upload Behavior for the CakePHP framework. It’s based on the Digital Spaghetti’s Upload Behavior.

Juan Basso created a project hosted at github. I am unable to keep working on this behavior an he is making some updates to the code. I think github is a great tool because you can simply fork the project and make your own changes. Go check his work: http://github.com/jrbasso/MeioUpload/tree/master

Download

MeioUploadBehavior version 1.0.1

Features

Can be used for any kind of files;
Accepts custom directory for files to be uploaded;
Validates the file extension and mime-type due to the behavior configuration;
Validates the max file size;
Allow custom validation rules;
Allow as many thumbnails formats as you want;
Allow more then one field to be uploadable, with custom options per field;
Stores the directory, filesize, and mime-type in the database if the table has these fields. Also allows to customize these fields names;
Allow the use of default files and deleting files without deleting the entire record;
Delete files when the record is deleted or updated with a new file;
Also works in the $model->saveAll method.

Usage

Place the meio_upload.php file in your app/models/behaviors folder;
If you want to use thumbnails, download Nate’s phpThumb Component and place it in your app/controllers/components folder;

Insert in your model table a character varying field:

CREATE TABLE `products` (
`id` int(8) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment,
`name` varchar(255) default NULL,
`description` text default NULL,
`price` double default NULL,
`picture` varchar(255) default NULL,
`dir` varchar(255) default NULL,
`mimetype` varchar(255) NULL,
`filesize` int(11) unsigned default NULL,
`created` datetime default NULL,
`modified` datetime default NULL,
PRIMARY KEY  (`id`) ) ENGINE=MyISAM  DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

Add the MeioUpload in the $actsAs of your model:

var $actsAs = array(
    'MeioUpload' => array(
        'picture' => array(
            'dir' => 'img{DS}{model}{DS}{field}',
            'create_directory' => true,
            'allowed_mime' => array('image/jpeg', 'image/pjpeg', 'image/png'),
            'allowed_ext' => array('.jpg', '.jpeg', '.png'),
            'thumbsizes' => array(
                'normal' => array('width'=>200, 'height'=>200),
            ),
            'default' => 'default.jpg',
        )
    )
);

Use a form file input to the field:

echo $form->input('picture', array('type' => 'file'));

Make sure your form has multipart/form-data enctype:

echo $form->create('Product',array('type' => 'file'));

Make sure the PHP has permission to write in the folder yous specified and the php.ini allow the MAX_FILE_SIZE you specified.

Options

When you apply the MeioUpload Behavior to a Model, you pass an array with your options. Here are the options you can change and it’s defaults.

dir
The folder where the uploaded files will be saved. It must be inside the app/webroot directory and defaults to an empty string, what means that it will be the app/webroot itself. If you specify some path, then it will be app/webroot/the_path_you/specified. In this option you may use the {DS} pattern, what will be converted to ‘/’ in UNIX systems and to ‘\’ in Windows systems.
allowed_mime
This option specifies the allowed mime-types for the files. It defaults to an empty array. What means that every mime-type will be accepted. But if you specify an array with the mime-types allowed, only files of these mime-types will be accepted.
```
var $actsAs = array(
    'picture' => array(
        'allowed_mime' => array('image/jpeg', 'image/pjpeg', 'image/png')
    )
);
```
The code above says that the picture field will be a file uploaded, and it allows ‘image/jpeg’, ‘image/pjpeg’ and ‘image/png’ mime-types.
allowed_ext
This option specifies the allowed file extensions. It defaults to an empty array. What means that every extension will be accepted. But if you specify an array with the extensions allowed, only files with these extensions will be accepted.
```
var $actsAs = array(
    'picture' => array(
        'allowed_ext' => array('.jpg', '.jpeg', '.png')
    )
);
```
The code above says that the picture field will be a file uploaded, and it allows ‘.jpg’, ‘.jpeg’ and ‘.png’ extensions.
create_directory
If you want to create the directory specified in the dir option if it don’t exists, then set this option to true. It already defaults to true, but you can set it to false.
max_size
The max file size allowed in the upload. Be sure it’s lower then the php.ini configuration. You can set a numeric value of bytes, or set it in other unit like ’8 Kb’, only ‘kb’, ‘mb’, ‘gb’ and ‘tb’ units are allowed and it’s not case-sensitive. It defaults to 2 Mb.
```
var $actsAs = array(
    'picture' => array(
        'max_size' => '4 Mb'
    )
);
```
default
If you have a file that you want to use if the field is left blank, like a default picture for users who don’t have one, set this option to the name of this file. Make sure it is inside the folder specified in the ‘dir’ option.
```
var $actsAs = array(
    'picture' => array(
        'default' => 'default.jpg'
    )
);
```
fields
With this option you can customize the field inside your model table, where the data will be saved. The filename is the key of the options array, and you can setup fields to store the filesize, mime-type and directory. It defaults to ‘filesize’, ‘mimetype’ and ‘dir’ respectively, but you can customize with an array:
```
var $actsAs = array(
    'picture' => array(
        'fields' => array(
            'filesize' => 'picture_filesize',
            'mimetype' => '{field}_mimetype',
            'dir' => 'pictures_folder'
        )
    )
);
```
The code above says that your filesize, mimetype and dir fields will be ‘picture_filesize’, ‘picture_mimetype’ and ‘picture_folder’ respectively. And the filename field will be pictures. You may notice that in mimetype case, i used the constant {field} that will be replaced with the field name(picture in this case).

Validations

The behavior automatically include some validations to your field. Here they are:

FieldName Checks if the field has been setup to be and uploadable.
Dir Checks if the directory exists or if it can be created. This validation depends on the option ‘create_directory’.
Empty Checks if the filename is not empty. It defaults to be used only on create.
UploadError Checks if ocurred erros in the upload.
MaxSize Checks if the file isn’t bigger then the max file size option.
InvalidMime Checks if the file is of an allowed mime-type.
InvalidExt Checks if the file has an allowed extension.

You can overwrite any of the parameters of these default validation rules. Directly in the model $validate var:

var $validate = array(
    'picture' => array(
        'Empty' => array(
            'check' => false
        ),
        'InvalidExt => array(
            'message' => 'This file extension isn't allowed.'
        )
    )
);

In the code above, i changed the message for the ‘InvalidExt’ default validation. You can also disable any of the default validations by setting the ‘check’ atribute fo false as is shown in the example above for the ‘Empty’ default validation. You can change any of the other parameters of the built-in cake validation:

var $validate = array(
    'picture' => array(
        'Empty' => array(
            'rule' => array('YourDefaultValidation'),
            'on' => 'update',
            'required' => true
        ),
    )
);

You can also change the validation rule for one you have created. But use this functionality carefully.

Setting up file removing

If you send a form data with as field named data[Model][field][remove] not empty, then the behavior will automatically delete the file associated with the record and set it’s value to the default, if it is set, or to empty. To achieve this you can add a checkbox to your form:

echo $form->input('Product.picture.remove', array('type' => 'checkbox'));

167 Responses to “MeioUpload Behavior – An improved File Upload Behavior for CakePHP”

asdzxc says:
June 26th, 2011 21:47

@vbmendes, yes i understand that, thanks anyway for creating such piece of code, i hope you would return back here because the idea was great, cheers and thanks again
truky says:
July 26th, 2011 09:07

Hello, first thanks for this behavior … Why this error if i have ‘create_directory’ => true

Fatal error: Call to undefined method Folder::mkdir() in …on line 370

with the directory created and put that option a false .. no problem …works perfectly

I’m using cake 1.3
m16u says:
July 27th, 2011 00:57

hi, i have a problem .. i dont want to use the check to remove my image field in the table.

i have a function to update this field to blank

$data = array( ‘Node’ => array( ‘id’=>$id, ‘imagen’=>” ) ); $this->Node->save( $data, false, array(‘imagen’) );

and with this function i can’t modify the table. it works with other fields but image field doesnot work
CakePHP: Utiliser MeioUpload dans plusieurs modèles says:
August 8th, 2011 08:32

[...] Dans le billet je vais vous montrer une façon parmi tant d’autres pour gérer le behavior génialissime disponible à cette adresse: http://www.meiocodigo.com/projects/meioupload/ [...]
jerome says:
August 24th, 2011 08:10

very nice tutorial and it works great. but i have a little question. is it possible to create the galery_name as folder to.

so when i upload an image and select the Galery “Example”, the folder “Example” doesn´t exists, the model creates the directory ? nice grretings
jerome says:
September 15th, 2011 05:50

Hi,

how can i use the watermark function from phpThumb. Anybody an idea ?

nice greetings
4life says:
November 8th, 2011 10:01

You could certainly see your skills within the work you write. The arena hopes for even more passionate writers like you who are not afraid to mention how they believe. At all times go after your heart.
Juan Pablo says:
December 6th, 2011 09:13
Hello,

I can not make it work…

I can create folders and upload files with PHP by using very simple code. So it should not be a problem with permision.

Meio is being executed, it does not give any error, and it saves a temporal file… but finaly I could not find the uploaded file at any folder.

If I put a “debug( $this->data );” at “update()” function in “speeches_controller.php” I have this (it seems to be right):

Array ( [Speech] => Array ( [filename] => Array ( [name] => usuarios_6.png [type] => image/x-png [tmp_name] => C:\xampp\tmp\php109.tmp [error] => 0 [size] => 90413 )
```
    )
```
)

Any idea?
Rtransat says:
December 10th, 2011 22:20

Hi,

Sorry for my english, I am french.

The plugin is really good but phpThumb don’t create thumbnails

My code :

public $actsAs = array( ‘MeioUpload.MeioUpload’ => array( ‘image’ => array( ‘thumbnails’ => true, ‘thumbsizes’ => array( ‘normal’ => array(‘width’=>200, ‘height’=>200), ), ‘default’ => ‘default.jpg’ ) ) );

I use version 2.0.4 of cakephp and last version in phpThumb phpThumb is in app/Vendor/phpThumb/

And also, how to manage two files on the same form in database to store directory, mimetype, size of the two files on the same tables ?
CakePHP 2 : composant d’upload de fichiers images » Le blog de Nicolas Hachet says:
January 5th, 2012 10:29

[...] Pour ce premier article de 2012, je vous propose un code qui peut s’avérer très pratique pour la gestion de vos uploads de fichiers images. Ce composant CakePHP 2.0 prend forme en tant que Behaviour (helpeur de modèle). Le code est basé sur la version 1.0.1 du MeioUploadBehavior. Vous trouverez toutes les infos utiles sur le site MeioUpload Behavior. [...]
armand says:
January 26th, 2012 06:24

The file dose not work in cakephp 2.0. You need to change the uses(‘file’) with App::uses(‘File’,'Utility’). Also there is a call to a method mkdir in folder class wich also is obsolete. the $this->Folder->mkdir($options['dir']) should be replaced with (new Folder($options['dir'], true, 0777)). Also the example in the file itself for creating the database and $actAs variable wont work. Dont bother with them just use the ones on this page. Also this example on this page wont work either on cakephp 2.x.x if yuo dont change echo $form->input(‘picture’, array(‘type’ => ‘file’)); with echo $this->Form->input(‘picture’, array(‘type’ => ‘file’)); and the create form ofcourse. If you make those changes will fave the surprize that still the code dont work in all cases. With a file named aaa.jpg will work. With one named AAA.JPG wont work. It dosent behave well with capital letter extensions.
armand says:
January 26th, 2012 06:46

In order for behaviour to work with both aaa.jpg and AAA.JPG (wich is not the default case) you need to do the following changes in the behaviour code. In the function uploadCheckInvalidExt(&$model, $data) change substr($field['name'],-strlen($extension)) == $extension with strtolower(substr($field['name'],-strlen($extension))) == strtolower($extension). This will ensure that both .jpg and .JPG extension will be recognized but the code still dosent work as expected. You will need to make one more change in function splitFilenameAndExt($filename){ replace the followig code return array($filename,$ext); with the new one $filename = strtolower($filename); $ext = strtolower($ext); return array($filename,$ext); The code will work now. For compliance you may change the var declaration with public even the code will work without doing that change it is better you to do it. Also this behavior is a good for trivial purposes. I have a site with 3 million pictures gathered in few months. Saving them in the same directory will lead to serious performance loss, bootleneck, not to mention you will not be able never ever to open a directory with that many files in it. I come up with a simple solution to save the file in multiple directories.
armand says:
January 26th, 2012 06:53

Also the behavior destroy the picture quality if you don’t put the largest thumbnail first.
armand says:
January 26th, 2012 07:05

But that ony if you use ‘normal’ => array(‘width’=>200, ‘height’=>200). Don’t use normal, use anything else and the behavior will save the original file and the other thumbnails. For example ‘thumbsizes’ => array( ‘small’ => array(‘width’=>100, ‘height’=>100), ‘medium’ => array(‘width’=>220, ‘height’=>220), ‘large’ => array(‘width’=>800, ‘height’=>600) ) Will result in 4 files one is the original and the other 3 are thumb.small, thumb.medium, thumb.large. The normal thumbsize will make the original at normal dimension and resize all the other thumsizes from there. So if you make a normal 100x100px and then want a large 800×600 px the image will be a very poor quality upscale from 100×100 px to 800x800px even the original file may be 8Megapixel or more. So dont use normal at all or at list give it a dimmenson a little bigger that the one you are sure will ever use.
Vinicius Mendes says:
January 26th, 2012 21:22

Dear Armand,

I don’t maintain this code anymore. There’s a project in GitHub where it’s maintained by other people. I’ve put a disclaimer in the top of the page with this message and the link for the current project. Probably, many of these issues are already fixed there.

Thanks. Vinicius Mendes
armand says:
January 27th, 2012 05:54

That is fine. Even you don’t maintain the code someone who arrive in here (by the way you are the first SERP in google for keywords cakephp meioupload) can make the code work with a little tweek. Is a good pice of code has many features. Offcourse like any code, has bugs (or develop random features ) but that is not a reason nut to use it. And also can be better documented. One last change so the code can work correctly with multiple upload fields even some of them are empty. On the public function beforeSave(&$model) { change unset($model->data[$model->name][$fieldName]) with unset($model->data[$model->name])
armand says:
January 27th, 2012 05:56

I also made a simple to use captcha component working in cakephp 2.x.x. I can send it to you if you want to display it on your site.

Meio Código