README

Dealing with the $_FILES array in PHP sucks. Most solutions only work for a specific situation and aren't easily portable. This utility is designed to organize any possible incarnation of the $_FILES array into the structure you would intuitively expect. Getting data about uploaded files should be just as easy as reading the $_POST array.

Getting Started

Requirements

PHP >= 7.3

Installation

composer require tvanc/files-array-organizer

Examples

One input, one file

In a case like this, the $_FILES array is pretty straight forward and the organized version is identical to the unorganized version.

<?php
use tvanc\FilesArrayOrganizer\FilesArrayOrganizer;

if ($_FILES) {
    $organizedFiles = FilesArrayOrganizer::organize($_FILES);

    if ($organizedFiles === $_FILES) {
        echo "Looks like you didn't really need to do that.";
    }
}
?>
<form method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
    <input type="file" name="file">
    <button>Submit</button>
</form>

A single input that accepts multiple files

FilesArrayOrganizer makes dealing with this common scenario a little easier.

<?php
use tvanc\FilesArrayOrganizer\FilesArrayOrganizer;

if ($_FILES) {
    $organizedFiles = FilesArrayOrganizer::organize($_FILES);
    $attachments    = $organizedFiles['attachments'];

    foreach ($attachments as $attachment) {
        $attachment_name = $attachment['name'];
        $attachment_size = $attachment['size'];
    }
}
?>
<form method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
    <!-- Notice this input accepts multiple files -->
    <input type="file" name="attachments[]" multiple>
    <button>Submit</button>
</form>

Multiple inputs that accept multiple files

FilesArrayOrganizer makes dealing with this less-common scenario much easier. Check the Explanation to see the surprising $_FILES array you can get from a form containing multiple inputs that each accept multiple files.

<?php
use tvanc\FilesArrayOrganizer\FilesArrayOrganizer;

// @var Todo[] $todos An array of todos
$todos = fetchTodos();

if ($_FILES) {
    $organizedFiles = FilesArrayOrganizer::organize($_FILES);

    foreach ($organizedFiles as $index => $postedTodo) {
        $attachments = $organizedFiles['todo'][$index];

        saveAttachments($index, $attachments);
    }
}
?>
<form method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
    <?php foreach ($todos as $index => $todo) { ?>
        <label>Attachments for todo <?= $index ?></label>
        <input
            type="file"
            name="todo[<?= $index ?>][attachments][]"
            multiple
        >
    <?php } ?>

    <button>Submit</button>
</form>

Execute a custom callback on each file

To alter how file data is represented, pass a callback as the second argument to FilesArrayOrganizer::organize(). The callback receives one argument, which is an array of file data. The callback's return value will be used to represent the file instead of the received array parameter.

<?php
use tvanc\FilesArrayOrganizer\FilesArrayOrganizer;
use YourOwn\MadeUpNameSpace\UploadedFile;

// Receive $file by reference to mutate it. You can even replace it entirely.
$callback = function (array & $file) {
    $file = new UploadedFile($file);
}

$organizedFilesArray = FilesArrayOrganizer::organize($_FILES, $callback);

// $attachments will be an array of UploadedFile objects
$attachments = $organizedFilesArray['attachments'];
?>
<form method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
    <input type="file" name="attachments[]" multiple>
    <button>Submit</button>
</form>

Explanation

For some situations, dealing with the $_FILES superglobal is fine. Uploading a single file via a field named attachment would generate a simple $_FILES array like this:

[
    'attachment' = [
        'name'     => 'filename.jpg',
        'type'     => 'image/jpeg',
        'tmp_name' => '/tmp/phpR4nD0m',
        'error'    => 0,
        'size'     => 2407,
    ]
]

Getting the file's attributes is easy. The path to the input's value corresponds to the name of the input field.

$file_name = $_FILES['attachment']['name'];
$file_size = $_FILES['attachment']['size'];

What about a field named todo[0][attachments][], which accepts multiple files? Working with the files from this field should be easy. Right?

<?php
$attachments = $_FILES['todo'][0]['attachments'];

foreach ($attachments as $attachment) {
    doSomething($attachment);
}
?>
<form method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
    <input type="file" name="todo[0][attachments][]" multiple>
</form>

Wrong.

You thought the $_FILES array would look like this.

[
    'todo' => [
        0 => [
            'attachments' => [
                0 => [
                    'name'     => 'filename.jpg',
                    'type'     => 'image/jpeg',
                    'tmp_name' => '/tmp/phpR4nD0m',
                    'error'    => 0,
                    'size'     => 2407,
                ],
                // ...
            ],
        ],
    ]
]

It will actually look like this:

[
    'todo' => [
       'name'     => [
           0 => [
               'attachments' => [
                   0 => 'filename.jpg'
               ]
           ]
       ],
       'type'     => [
           0 => [
               'attachments' => [
                   0 => 'image/jpeg'
               ]
           ]
       ],
       'tmp_name' => [
           0 => [
               'attachments' => [
                   0 => '/tmp/phpKYBy4z'
               ]
           ]
       ],
       'error'    => [
           0 => [
               'attachments' => [
                   0 => 0
               ]
           ]
       ],
       'size'     => [
           0 => [
               'attachments' => [
                   0 => 2407
               ]
           ]
       ]
    ]
]

I leave it as an exercise for the reader to figure out how to extract the useful information out of that. If you don't want to repeat that exercise every time you need to handle more than one file at a time, just use this library.

To see how to use FilesArrayOrganizer with a $_FILES array just like this, see the example, Multiple inputs that accept multiple files.