MeioUpload Behavior – An improved File Upload Behavior for CakePHP
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
Related Articles
- Documentation translated to French
- Documentation translated to Ukrainian
- Junnan’s post
- Dave Rupert’s comment about MeioUpload Behavior
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'));


November 24th, 2008 at 07:50
@jarret If your models have the same field to store the uploaded file, you can do this. But I think theres a better solution, using a model to store all the files. For example: File. And make a relationship with all models using PolymrpicBehavior ( http://bakery.cakephp.org/articles/view/polymorphic-behavior )
November 26th, 2008 at 09:48
Tx for fast reply, much appreciated. I had a look at your link, but failed epically:-D. So I created a file manager model separately, based on your behavior, and added a belongsTo relationship to each model using images. And in my controller, before a save, I have, $this->City->Filemanager->save($image) $this->data['City']['filemanager_id'] = $this->City->Filemanager->getLastInsertID(); and it works great:-), tx again, and keepit up..jj
November 26th, 2008 at 11:15
@jarret That’s not the best way to do this. I think the City doesn’t belongs to the File. In my point of view, the File belongsTo the City. And the Polymorphic behavior allows this. It’s basic concept is that you have a foreign key attribute, and a model name attribute. So each File will belong to a different model. And to know wich model the File belongs to, you just have to check it’s model name attribule.
I saw somewhere an example showing how to use the polymorphic behavior with the upload behavior I was based, but I can’t find it anymore.
November 27th, 2008 at 06:26
So saving it in a separate model (Filemanager) that handles file uploads and then getting the id and storing it in the model (City) that uses images, not the best way, I see your point, while applying my previous solution through 15 models that all have images. I will spend today on the link you sent me, tx again V…jj
November 30th, 2008 at 22:27
you say that this requires phpthumb, and in your createthumb function you import the Thumb component. however, your code never seems to actually use the Thumb component or phpthumb. what gives????
December 1st, 2008 at 12:00
@lucas This is a requirement of the behavior I used as base. I think you actually don’t need it. You can try it and tell us the result.
December 8th, 2008 at 09:35
Bom Dia Vinicius, Como que ue faço pra enviar multiplos arquivos com o teu behavior? no caso vo ter vários campos com o nome de imagem[]. No caso seria um array de várias imagens, como eu trato isso com o Behavior?
Obrigado.
December 8th, 2008 at 12:51
Hello
I have the same problen than luke. It loads the file but it displays the following message :
Notice (8): Undefined index: {Model} … in 550 meiouploadbehavior::fixname() – [internal], line ?? meiouploadbehavior::fixname() – /homez.40/…/cakephp/app/models/behaviors/meio_upload.php, line 550 meiouploadbehavior::beforesave() – /homez.40/…/cakephp/app/models/behaviors/meio_upload.php, line 628 meiouploadbehavior::dispatchmethod() – /homez.40/…/cakephp/cake/libs/model/behavior.php, line 163 behaviorcollection::trigger() – /homez.40/… /cakephp/cake/libs/model/behavior.php, line 445
My website runs with CakePHP 1.2.0.7692 RC3
Thanks for your help
December 8th, 2008 at 12:55
Hi Gabriel, I never have managed to fix this. I am waiting for a new release to try again and perhaps with another version of cake (latest SVN). I tried with RC2 and RC3. But others do not have the problem so I wonder what causes it.
December 8th, 2008 at 13:51
Hi Luke,
Thanks for your answer.
I noticed another problems. If I load 2 times the same file, the older version is replaced with the new one (the new one isn’t renamed). It failed to create automaticaly a new folder.
It’s pity because this bahaviour looks great and convenient.
So do you know another tools for cake to upload files ?
Gabriel