Laravel serve file from any path on server as if it was in the public folder

user_6058120 0
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I want to be able to serve a file, located at any path on the server's filesystem that PHP/Apache has permission to read, as if it was in Laravel's public folder.

Let's say I have a local directory on my server /var/directory/ that contains two files:

  • /var/directory/abc.jpg
  • /var/directory/xyz.jpg

Now, how can I make these files accessible via something like:

  • https://example.com/media/abc.jpg
  • https://example.com/media/xyz.jpg

I think I need a controller that handles routes for /media/{filename}. It's fairly straight forward to then check if said file exists on disk in /var/directory/ and read it into PHP.

So the real question is: how I read these files efficiently and then serve them as a response to a get request? The solution should be as efficient as possible so that it works for larger files (10s to 100s of MB).

laravel php
1 Answers

I figured it out by myself. I must say, the solution is embarassingly simple.

I have all files indexed in the DB, so I can make use of route model binding. If that isn't the case for you, you'd need to look up if the file exists on disk manually.

Route::get('/media/{file:id}', FileDownloadController::class);

Then, all it takes is:

public function __invoke(File $file)
{
    return response()->file($file->path);
}

Or this if a download prompt should be raised:

public function __invoke(File $file)
{
    return response()->download($file->path);
}
user_60581200
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