Larablob - Laravel blob store

File uploads made easy! PHP blob store for the famous Laravel web framework.

Features

• File system based blob storage
• Blobs grouped by named blob groups
• Supports storing blob metadata (stored as JSON files)
• Compatible with Laravel 4.1, 4.2 & 5.0

Why use it?

• You will frequently need to store binary large objects (blobs) like user-uploaded images
• Larablob stores the data separate from your database
• So your database dumps stay small
• Backups are dead easy: Just copy the blob store directory
• Easy to set up and simple to use
• Frequent security pitfalls have been considered and cared for
• Clean high-level API and uncomplicated access on filesystem layer

How To

<?php
use Larablob\Facades\BlobStore;

$blobGroup = BlobStore::getBlobGroup('profile-pics', true);     // true indicates to create the group if it's not yet present

$blob = $blobGroup->createBlob();
$blob->importFromFile('php://input');

echo "Saved request body to filesystem without worrying about malicious user-given file names!\n";
echo "And we now have a high-level API for using it, too.";

$blob->save("Hello world!");
echo "Stored new data in blob: ".$blob->data()."\n";

echo "All profile-pic blobs:\n";
foreach ($blobGroup->allBlobs() as $blob) {
    echo "-> ".$blob->getId()." (size: ".$blob->size().")\n";
}

echo "Cleaning up...\n";
$blobGroup->delete();

Installation

Just run the following command in your project directory:

composer require andywer/larablob=dev-master      # dev-laravel4 for Laravel 4.1 or 4.2

Now add the following line to the providers array of your config/app.php file:

    'providers' => [
        /* ... */
        'Larablob\LarablobServiceProvider'
    ]

And optionally:

    `aliases` => [
        /* ... */
        'BlobStore' => 'Larablob\Facades\BlobStore'
    ]

Laravel 4

If you still use Laravel 4.1 or 4.2, install the package like:

composer require andywer/larablob=dev-laravel4

Example

Usage is simple and straight forward. The following sample code shows how to easily store random HTTP POST data and related metadata into a blob store.

<?php
namespace app\Http\Controllers;

use Larablob\Facades\BlobStore;
use Request;

class PostController extends Controller {

    /** @var \Larablob\Storage\BlobGroup */
    protected $blobGroup;


    public function __construct()
    {
        // the `true` indicates that a new group shall be created if it does not exist
        $this->blobGroup = BlobStore::getBlobGroup('post-data', true);
    }

    /**
     * GET parameters: ['id', 'mime-type']
     * POST data: Random data
     */
    public function postDataUpload()
    {
        $blob = $this->blobGroup->createBlob(Request::input('id'));
        // if we would not pass a blob ID here, the blob store would generate a random UUID v4 for us

        $blob->importFromFile('php://input');
        $blob->setMeta([ 'type' => Request::input('mime-type') ]);

        return response()->json([ 'storedBytes' => $blob->size() ]);
    }

    /**
     * GET parameters: ['id']
     */
    public function retrieveData()
    {
        $blob = $this->blobGroup->getBlob(Request::input('id'));

        return response()->download($blob->getFilePath());
    }

    /**
     * GET parameters: ['id']
     */
    public function retrieveMetadata()
    {
        $blob = $this->blobGroup->getBlob(Request::input('id'));
        $meta = $blob->getMeta();

        return response()->json([ 'type' => $meta->type, 'size' => $blob->size() ]);
    }

    /**
     * Parameters: None
     */
    public function listAll()
    {
        return response()->json([
            'IDs' => $this->blobGroup->allBlobIds()
        ]);
    }

    /**
     * GET parameters: ['id']
     */
    public function removeData()
    {
        $this->blobGroup->getBlob(Request::input('id'))->delete();
        // getBlob() throws a \Larablob\Exceptions\NotFoundException if a bad ID is passed

        return response()->json([ 'success' => true ]);
    }

}

API

Larablob\Facades\BlobStore

BlobStore::getPath()

Returns the path to the blob store base directory on the file system. Defaults to {project-dir}/storage/larablob

BlobStore::createBlobGroup(string $name)

Creates a new blob group using the supplied $name and returns the BlobGroup instance. May throw a Larablob\Exceptions\NamingException or a Larablob\Exceptions\AlreadyPresentException.

BlobStore::getBlobGroup(string $name, bool $autoCreate = false)

Returns a BlobGroup instance which you can use to create, read, update or delete blobs. If the blob group cannot be found a Larablob\Exceptions\NotFoundException is thrown, unless $autoCreate is set to true (in this case a new blob group with the given name will be created and returned).

BlobStore::allBlobGroups()

Returns an array containing all existing BlobGroups.

BlobStore::allBlobGroupNames()

Returns an array containing all existing blob group's names.

BlobStore::blobGroupExists(string $name)

Returns true if a blob group with this name exists, false if not.

Larablob\Storage\BlobGroup

$blobGroup->getName()

Returns the name of the blob group.

$blobGroup->getStore()

Returns the Larablob\Storage\BlobStore instance of the blob group's store.

$blobGroup->createBlob(string $id = null)

Creates a new blob in the blob group and returns a Blob instance. You can optionally pass an $id to the method (any non-empty string will do; the filename will be urlencode($id)) or otherwise Larablob will create a random UUID v4 for the blob.

Hint: A blob's ID must only be unique in the context of it's blob group.

$blobGroup->getBlob(string $id, bool $autoCreate = false)

Returns a Blob instance. If the blob cannot be found a Larablob\Exceptions\NotFoundException is thrown, unless $autoCreate is set to true (in this case a new blob with the given id will be created and returned).

$blobGroup->allBlobs()

Returns an array containing all Blobs of this blob group.

$blobGroup->allBlobIds()

Returns an array containing all blob's identifiers (in this blob group).

$blobGroup->blobExists(string $id)

Returns true if a blob with the given ID exists, false if not.

$blobGroup->delete()

Deletes the blob group and all its blobs. Attention: Trying to access the blob group or it's contents after calling delete() may result in an exception being thrown.

Larablob\Storage\Blob

$blob->getId()

Returns the blob's identifier as a string.

$blob->getFilePath()

Returns the path to the blob file as a string.

$blob->getBlobGroup()

Returns the BlobGroup instance of the blob group that contains this blob.

$blob->data()

Returns the blob's data as a string.

$blob->size()

Returns an integer indicating the blob data's size in bytes.

$blob->save(string $data)

Update the blob's data. Overwrites existing data.

$blob->importFromFile(string $filePath)

A shortcut to saving the contents of the given file to the blob. Throws a Larablob\Exceptions\FileSystemException if the file cannot be read.

$blob->getMeta()

Returns the blob's metadata previously set by setMeta() as a generic object (stdClass).

$blob->setMeta(mixed $metadata)

Saves custom metadata for the blob. The metadata will be encoded to a JSON string and saved to another file.

$blob->delete()

Deletes the blob and it's metadata. Attention: Trying to access the blob or it's content after calling delete() may result in an exception being thrown.

Configuration

Currently the only thing to configure is the store path. It defaults to a directory larablob in the application's storage directory.

License

This software is licensed under the terms of the MIT license. See LICENSE for details.