Securing and Accessing Laravel Symbolic Link Storage

In any real-world application; we often need to store uploaded files of the users. By default, Laravel stores the file inside the storage/app/public folder. But since it is not inside the public/storage folder; it cannot be accessed by the public. We need to create a symbolic link from public/storage to storage/app/public.

Option 1: Using Symbolic Link

To create the symbolic link, use the storage:link Artisan command:

php artisan storage:link

Once a file (say xyz.jpg) has been stored and the symbolic link has been created, simply create a URL to the files using the asset helper:

echo asset('storage/xyz.jpg');

More information on Symbolic Link is Available Here

Option 2: Using Routes

Although, a great way to store and access files; symbolic link also exposes all the files together to the public. In order to safeguard the files behind some logic simply use this code inside web.php

Route::get('/mystorage/{filename}', function ($filename)
{
    //Add additional Logic Here

    $path = storage_path('app/public/'.$filename); //translates to storage/app/public/filename

    if (!File::exists($path)) {
        abort(404); //return 404 error if file not found
    }

    $file = File::get($path); //get the file
    $type=File::extension($path); //determine the file type

    $response = Response::make($file, 200); //200 OK HTML Response
    $response->header("Content-Type", $type); //HTML filetype header

    return $response; //return file
});

You can access the file from blade like this

<!--In Blade-->
.
.
.
<a href="/mystorage/xyz.jpg">Click!</a>

I hope the code helps you.

Saifur Rahman

Md. Saifur Rahman is a Full Stack Django and Laravel Developer. Additionally, he loves to spend time learning and researching about the Internet of Things (IoT). He loves to share his work and contribute to helping fellow developers.