**Course Title:** Mastering Laravel Framework: Building Scalable Modern Web Applications **Section Title:** File Storage and Uploads **Topic:** Create a file upload system in Laravel that supports image uploads and stores files in cloud storage (e.g., AWS S3).(Lab topic) **Objective:** By the end of this topic, you will be able to create a file upload system in Laravel that supports image uploads and stores files in cloud storage using AWS S3. **Prerequisites:** - Familiarity with Laravel framework - Understanding of file uploads and storage in Laravel - Basic knowledge of AWS S3 **Step 1: Setting up AWS S3** Before we dive into the file upload system, we need to set up AWS S3. If you haven't already, create an AWS account and set up an S3 bucket. 1. Go to the AWS Management Console and navigate to the S3 dashboard. 2. Click on "Create bucket" and enter a unique name for your bucket. 3. Choose a region for your bucket and click on "Create bucket". 4. Note down the bucket name and region, we will use these later. **Step 2: Installing the AWS SDK for PHP** We will use the AWS SDK for PHP to interact with AWS S3 from our Laravel application. 1. Run the following command in your terminal to install the AWS SDK for PHP: ``` composer require aws/aws-sdk-php ``` 2. Update the `aws.php` file in the `config` directory to include your AWS credentials: ```php <?php return [ 'key' => env('AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID'), 'secret' => env('AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY'), 'region' => env('AWS_DEFAULT_REGION'), ]; ``` **Step 3: Creating a File Upload System** Now, let's create a file upload system in Laravel that supports image uploads and stores files in AWS S3. 1. Create a new migration to create the `files` table: ```php use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration; use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint; class CreateFilesTable extends Migration { public function up() { Schema::create('files', function (Blueprint $table) { $table->id(); $table->string('name'); $table->string('type'); $table->string('path'); $table->timestamps(); }); } public function down() { Schema::dropIfExists('files'); } } ``` 2. Run the migration to create the `files` table: ``` php artisan migrate ``` 3. Create a new controller to handle file uploads: ```php namespace App\Http\Controllers; use Illuminate\Http\Request; use App\Models\File; class FileController extends Controller { public function upload(Request $request) { $file = $request->file('file'); $name = $file->getClientOriginalName(); $path = 'uploads/' . $name; $file->storeAs('uploads', $name); $file = new File(); $file->name = $name; $file->type = $file->getClientOriginalExtension(); $file->path = $path; $file->save(); return response()->json(['message' => 'File uploaded successfully']); } } ``` 4. Create a new route to handle file uploads: ```php Route::post('/upload', 'FileController@upload'); ``` 5. Update the `FileController` to use AWS S3 to store files: ```php use Aws\S3\S3Client; class FileController extends Controller { private $s3Client; public function __construct() { $this->s3Client = new S3Client([ 'version' => 'latest', 'region' => env('AWS_DEFAULT_REGION'), 'credentials' => [ 'key' => env('AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID'), 'secret' => env('AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY'), ], ]); } public function upload(Request $request) { $file = $request->file('file'); $name = $file->getClientOriginalName(); $path = 'uploads/' . $name; $this->s3Client->upload('my-bucket', $path, $file); $file = new File(); $file->name = $name; $file->type = $file->getClientOriginalExtension(); $file->path = $path; $file->save(); return response()->json(['message' => 'File uploaded successfully']); } } ``` **Step 4: Testing the File Upload System** 1. Test the file upload system by sending a POST request to the `/upload` route with a file attached: ```bash curl -X POST \ http://localhost:8000/upload \ -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \ -F 'file=@path/to/file.txt' ``` 2. Verify that the file has been uploaded to AWS S3 and stored in the `uploads` directory. **Conclusion:** In this topic, we created a file upload system in Laravel that supports image uploads and stores files in AWS S3. We used the AWS SDK for PHP to interact with AWS S3 and updated the `FileController` to use AWS S3 to store files. We also tested the file upload system by sending a POST request to the `/upload` route with a file attached. **Exercise:** 1. Create a new migration to create the `files` table. 2. Run the migration to create the `files` table. 3. Create a new controller to handle file uploads. 4. Update the `FileController` to use AWS S3 to store files. 5. Test the file upload system by sending a POST request to the `/upload` route with a file attached. **Comment/Ask for Help:** Please leave a comment or ask for help if you have any questions or need further clarification on any of the steps.