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Working With Files, Folders and File References

This chapter provides some examples about interacting with File, Folder and FileReference objects.

Getting a File

A file can be retrieved using its uid:

$resourceFactory = \TYPO3\CMS\Core\Utility\GeneralUtility::makeInstance(\TYPO3\CMS\Core\Resource\ResourceFactory::class);
$file = $resourceFactory->getFileObject(4);

or its combined identifier:

$resourceFactory = \TYPO3\CMS\Core\Utility\GeneralUtility::makeInstance(\TYPO3\CMS\Core\Resource\ResourceFactory::class);
$file = $resourceFactory->getFileObjectFromCombinedIdentifier('1:/foo.txt');

The syntax of argument 1 for getFileObjectFromCombinedIdentifier is

[[storage uid]:]<file identifier>

The return value is

File|ProcessedFile|null

The storage uid is optional. If it is not specified, the default storage 0 will be assumed initially. The default storage is virtual with $uid === 0 in its class \TYPO3\CMS\Core\Resource\ResourceStorage. In this case the local filesystem is checked for the given file. The file identifier is the local path and filename relative to the TYPO3 fileadmin/ folder. Example: /templates/stylesheets/fonts.css, if the file /absolute/path/to/fileadmin/templates/stylesheets/fonts.css exists on the file system.

The file can be accessed from the default storage, if it exists under the given local path in fileadmin/. In case the file is not found, a search for another storage best fitting to this local path will be started. Afterwards the file identifier is adapted accordingly inside of TYPO3 to match the new storage's base path.

Copying a File

$storageUid = 17;
$someFileIdentifier = 'templates/images/banner.jpg';
$someFolderIdentifier = 'website/images/';

$resourceFactory = \TYPO3\CMS\Core\Utility\GeneralUtility::makeInstance(\TYPO3\CMS\Core\Resource\ResourceFactory::class);
$storage = $resourceFactory->getStorageObject($storageUid);

// $file returns a TYPO3\CMS\Core\Resource\File object
$file = $storage->getFile($someFileIdentifier);
// $folder returns a TYPO3\CMS\Core\Resource\Folder object
$folder = $storage->getFolder($someFolderIdentifier);

// returns the TYPO3\CMS\Core\Resource\File object of the new, copied file
$copiedFile = $file->copyTo($folder);

Adding a File

This example adds a new file in the root folder of the default Storage:

$resourceFactory = \TYPO3\CMS\Core\Utility\GeneralUtility::makeInstance(\TYPO3\CMS\Core\Resource\ResourceFactory::class);
$storage = $resourceFactory->getDefaultStorage();
$newFile = $storage->addFile(
      '/tmp/temporary_file_name.ext',
      $storage->getRootLevelFolder(),
      'final_file_name.ext'
);

The default storage uses fileadmin unless this was configured differently, as explained in Storages and Drivers.

So, for this example, the resulting file path would typically be <document-root>/fileadmin/final_file_name.ext

To store the file in a sub folder use $storage->getFolder():

$newFile = $storage->addFile(
      '/tmp/temporary_file_name.ext',
      $storage->getFolder('some/nested/folder'),
      'final_file_name.ext'
);

In this example, the file path would likely be <document-root>/fileadmin/some/nested/folder/final_file_name.ext

Creating a File Reference

In the Backend Context

In the backend or command-line context, it is possible to create file references using the DataHandler processes (\TYPO3\CMS\Core\DataHandling\DataHandler).

Assuming you have the "uid" of both the File and whatever other item you want to create a relation to, the following code will create the "sys_file_reference" entry and the relation to the other item (in this case a "tt_content" record):

$resourceFactory = GeneralUtility::makeInstance(ResourceFactory::class);
$fileObject = $resourceFactory->getFileObject((int)$file);
$contentElement = BackendUtility::getRecord(
        'tt_content',
        (int)$element
);
// Assemble DataHandler data
$newId = 'NEW1234';
$data = [];
$data['sys_file_reference'][$newId] = [
        'table_local' => 'sys_file',
        'uid_local' => $fileObject->getUid(),
        'tablenames' => 'tt_content',
        'uid_foreign' => $contentElement['uid'],
        'fieldname' => 'assets',
        'pid' => $contentElement['pid']
];
$data['tt_content'][$contentElement['uid']] = [
        'assets' => $newId
];
// Get an instance of the DataHandler and process the data
/** @var DataHandler $dataHandler */
$dataHandler = GeneralUtility::makeInstance(DataHandler::class);
$dataHandler->start($data, []);
$dataHandler->process_datamap();
// Error or success reporting
if (count($dataHandler->errorLog) === 0) {
    // Handle success
} else {
    // Handle errors
}

The above example comes from the "examples" extension (reference: https://github.com/TYPO3-Documentation/t3docs-examples/blob/master/Classes/Controller/ModuleController.php).

Here, the 'fieldname' 'assets' is used instead of image. Content elements of ctype 'textmedia' use the field 'assets'.

For another table than "tt_content", you need to define the "pid" explicitly when creating the relation:

$data['tt_address'][$address['uid']] = [
    'pid' => $address['pid'],
    'image' => 'NEW1234' // changed automatically
];

In the Frontend Context

In a frontend context, the \TYPO3\CMS\Core\DataHandling\DataHandler class cannot be used and there is no specific API to create a File Reference. You are on your own.

The simplest solution is to create a database entry into table "sys_file_reference" by using the database connection class provided by TYPO3 CMS.

A cleaner solution using Extbase requires far more work. An example can be found here: https://github.com/helhum/upload_example

Getting Referenced Files

This snippet shows how to retrieve FAL items that have been attached to some other element, in this case the "media" field of the "pages" table:

$fileRepository = GeneralUtility::makeInstance(\TYPO3\CMS\Core\Resource\FileRepository::class);
$fileObjects = $fileRepository->findByRelation('pages', 'media', $uid);

where $uid is the id of some page. The return value is an array of \TYPO3\CMS\Core\Resource\FileReference objects.

Listing Files in a Folder

These would be the shortest steps to get the list of files in a given folder: get the storage, get a folder object for some path in that storage (path relative to storage root), finally retrieve the files:

$resourceFactory = \TYPO3\CMS\Core\Utility\GeneralUtility::makeInstance(\TYPO3\CMS\Core\Resource\ResourceFactory::class);
$defaultStorage = $resourceFactory->getDefaultStorage();
$folder = $defaultStorage->getFolder('/some/path/in/storage/');
$files = $defaultStorage->getFilesInFolder($folder);

Dumping a file via eID Script

TYPO3 registers an eID script that allows dumping / downloading / referencing files via their FAL ids. Non-public storages use this script to make their files available to view or download. File retrieval is done via PHP and delivered through the eID script.

An example URL looks like this: index.php?eID=dumpFile&t=f&f=1230&token=135b17c52f5e718b7cc94e44186eb432e0cc6d2f.

Following URI-Parameters are available:

  • t (Type): Can be one of f (sys_file), r (sys_file_reference) or p (sys_file_processedfile)

  • f (File): UID of table sys_file

  • r (Reference): UID of table sys_file_reference

  • p (Processed): UID of table sys_file_processedfile

  • s (Size): Size (width and height) of the file

  • cv (CropVariant): In case of sys_file_reference, you can assign a cropping variant

You have to choose one of these parameters: f, r or p. It is not possible to combine them in one request.

The Parameter s has following syntax: width:height:minW:minH:maxW:maxH. You can leave this parameter empty to load the file in its original size. Parameter width and height can feature the trailing c or m indicator, as known from TypoScript.

The PHP class responsible for handling the file dumping is the FileDumpController, which you may also use in your code.

See the following example on how to create a URI using the FileDumpController for a sys_file record with a fixed image size:

$queryParameterArray = ['eID' => 'dumpFile', 't' => 'f'];
$queryParameterArray['f'] = $resourceObject->getUid();
$queryParameterArray['s'] = '320c:280c';
$queryParameterArray['token'] = GeneralUtility::hmac(implode('|', $queryParameterArray), 'resourceStorageDumpFile');
$publicUrl = GeneralUtility::locationHeaderUrl(PathUtility::getAbsoluteWebPath(Environment::getPublicPath() . '/index.php'));
$publicUrl .= '?' . http_build_query($queryParameterArray, '', '&', PHP_QUERY_RFC3986);

In this example crop variant default and an image size of 320:280 will be applied to a sys_file_reference record:

$queryParameterArray = ['eID' => 'dumpFile', 't' => 'r'];
$queryParameterArray['f'] = $resourceObject->getUid();
$queryParameterArray['s'] = '320c:280c:320:280:320:280';
$queryParameterArray['cv'] = 'default';
$queryParameterArray['token'] = GeneralUtility::hmac(implode('|', $queryParameterArray), 'resourceStorageDumpFile');
$publicUrl = GeneralUtility::locationHeaderUrl(PathUtility::getAbsoluteWebPath(Environment::getPublicPath() . '/index.php'));
$publicUrl .= '?' . http_build_query($queryParameterArray, '', '&', PHP_QUERY_RFC3986);

This example shows how to create a URI to load an image of sys_file_processedfile:

$queryParameterArray = ['eID' => 'dumpFile', 't' => 'p'];
$queryParameterArray['p'] = $resourceObject->getUid();
$queryParameterArray['token'] = GeneralUtility::hmac(implode('|', $queryParameterArray), 'resourceStorageDumpFile');
$publicUrl = GeneralUtility::locationHeaderUrl(PathUtility::getAbsoluteWebPath(Environment::getPublicPath() . '/index.php'));
$publicUrl .= '?' . http_build_query($queryParameterArray, '', '&', PHP_QUERY_RFC3986);

The following restrictions apply:

  • You can't assign any size parameter to processed files, as they are already resized.

  • You can't apply CropVariants to sys_file and sys_file_processedfile records, only to sys_file_reference