How to open file from storage by URL address?

Question

I store files in storage.

No I tried to generate link that open file like:

http://[temp.com]/storage/tests/de139607636857fade861a3c2c472643.txt

But it does not work.

How to open file from storage by URL address?

Answer 1

Files in the storage are not accessible by url by default

You could use Public Disk. For that you need to create symbolic link from public/storage to storage/app/public

From Larvel 5.3 and up, you have artisan command that will help you to create symlink

php artisan storage:link

If you are using older version of Laravel, you can find an answer how to create symbolic link here

---

Another approach would be to create new disk "uploads", by editing the file config/filesystems.php

'disks' => [
    'local' => [
        'driver' => 'local',
        'root'   => storage_path(),
    ],
    'uploads' => [
        'driver' => 'local',
        'root'   => public_path() . '/uploads',
    ],
]

To store files in this location

Storage::disk('uploads')->put($file_name, $file_content);

And to get the file

asset('uploads/'. $file_name)

Answer 2

The storage directory exists outside the web root, as some of the stuff in there shouldn't necessarily be publicly accessible.

https://laravel.com/docs/5.5/filesystem#the-public-disk

The public disk is intended for files that are going to be publicly accessible. By default, the public disk uses the local driver and stores these files in storage/app/public. To make them accessible from the web, you should create a symbolic link from public/storage to storage/app/public. This convention will keep your publicly accessible files in one directory that can be easily shared across deployments when using zero down-time deployment systems like Envoyer.

Answer 3

I strongly recommend not to modify the Laravel's directory structure.

What I would do is to create a URL to download the file, for example:

Route::get('download/{file}', 'DownloadsController@index');

And in that method's controller, put some logic to assert that the file exists and serve it with a response download, for example

public function index($file)
{
    $filePath = storage_path('tests/'.$file);
    if (! file_exists($filePath)) {
        // Some response with error message...
    }

    return response()->download($filePath);
}

Then you can download your file with a link like this

http://[temp.com]/download/de139607636857fade861a3c2c472643.txt

The controller's way allows you to make some authentication checks before serving the file for example, or to count how many times the file was downloaded.