Defining media collections

A media collection can be more than just a name to group files. By defining a media collection in your model you can add certain behaviour collections.

To get started with media collections add a function called registerMediaCollections to your prepared model. Inside that function you can use addMediaCollection to start a media collection.

// in your model

public function registerMediaCollections(): void
{
    $this->addMediaCollection('my-collection')
        //add options
        ...

    // you can define as many collections as needed
    $this->addMediaCollection('my-other-collection')
        //add options
        ...
}

##Are you a visual learner?

Here's a video that shows how to work with media collections.

Want to see more videos like this? Check out our free video course on how to use Laravel Media Library.

##Getting registered media collections

To retrieve all registered media collections on your model you can use the getRegisteredMediaCollections method.

$mediaCollections = $yourModel->getRegisteredMediaCollections();

This returns a collection of MediaCollection objects.

##Defining a fallback URL or path

If your media collection does not contain any items, calling getFirstMediaUrl or getFirstMediaPath will return null. You can change this by setting a fallback URL and/or path using useFallbackUrl and useFallbackPath.

use Spatie\MediaLibrary\MediaCollections\File;
...
public function registerMediaCollections(): void
{
    $this
        ->addMediaCollection('avatars')
        ->useFallbackUrl('/images/anonymous-user.jpg')
        ->useFallbackPath(public_path('/images/anonymous-user.jpg'));
}

When you use a fallback URL/path, conversions will use the default fallback URL/path if the media does not exist. You can pass a conversion name to the second parameter to use fallbacks per conversion.

use Spatie\MediaLibrary\MediaCollections\Models\Media;

// ...

public function registerMediaCollections(): void
{
    $this
        ->addMediaCollection('avatar')
        ->useFallbackUrl('/default_avatar.jpg')
        ->useFallbackUrl('/default_avatar_thumb.jpg', 'thumb')
        ->useFallbackPath(public_path('/default_avatar.jpg'))
        ->useFallbackPath(public_path('/default_avatar_thumb.jpg'), 'thumb')
        ->registerMediaConversions(function (Media $media) {
            $this
                ->addMediaConversion('thumb')
                ->width(50)
                ->height(50);
                
            $this
                ->addMediaConversion('thumb_2')
                ->width(100)
                ->height(100);
        });
}

In this way, the image sizes are always as expected:

$yourModel->getFirstMediaUrl('avatar'); // default_avatar.jpg
$yourModel->getFirstMediaUrl('avatar', 'thumb'); // default_avatar_thumb.jpg
$yourModel->getFirstMediaUrl('avatar', 'thumb_2'); // default_avatar.jpg

// ...

$yourModel->getFirstMediaPath('avatar'); // .../default_avatar.jpg
$yourModel->getFirstMediaPath('avatar', 'thumb'); // .../default_avatar_thumb.jpg
$yourModel->getFirstMediaPath('avatar', 'thumb_2'); // .../default_avatar.jpg

##Only allow certain files in a collection

You can pass a callback to acceptsFile that will check if a file is allowed into the collection. In this example we only accept jpeg files.

use Spatie\MediaLibrary\MediaCollections\File;
...
public function registerMediaCollections(): void
{
    $this
        ->addMediaCollection('only-jpegs-please')
        ->acceptsFile(function (File $file) {
            return $file->mimeType === 'image/jpeg';
        });
}

This will succeed:

$yourModel->addMedia('beautiful.jpg')->toMediaCollection('only-jpegs-please');

This will throw a Spatie\MediaLibrary\Exceptions\FileCannotBeAdded\FileUnacceptableForCollection exception:

$yourModel->addMedia('ugly.ppt')->toMediaCollection('only-jpegs-please');

##Only allow certain mimetypes in a collection

You can defined an array of accepted Mime types using acceptsMimeTypes that will check if a file with a certain Mime type is allowed into the collection. In this example we only accept image/jpeg files.

use Spatie\MediaLibrary\MediaCollections\File;

// ...

public function registerMediaCollections(): void
{
    $this
        ->addMediaCollection('only-jpegs-please')
        ->acceptsMimeTypes(['image/jpeg']);
}

This will succeed:

$yourModel->addMedia('beautiful.jpg')->toMediaCollection('only-jpegs-please');

This will throw a Spatie\MediaLibrary\Exceptions\FileCannotBeAdded\FileUnacceptableForCollection exception:

$yourModel->addMedia('ugly.ppt')->toMediaCollection('only-jpegs-please');

##Using a specific disk

You can ensure that files added to a collection are automatically added to a certain disk.

// in your model

public function registerMediaCollections(): void
{
    $this
       ->addMediaCollection('big-files')
       ->useDisk('s3');
}

When adding a file to big-files it will be stored on the s3 disk.

$yourModel->addMedia($pathToFile)->toMediaCollection('big-files');

You can still specify the disk name manually when adding media. In this example the file will be stored on alternative-disk instead of s3.

$yourModel->addMedia($pathToFile)->toMediaCollection('big-files', 'alternative-disk');

##Single file collections

If you want a collection to hold only one file you can use singleFile on the collection. A good use case for this would be an avatar collection on a User model. In most cases you'd want to have a user to only have one avatar.

// in your model

public function registerMediaCollections(): void
{
    $this
        ->addMediaCollection('avatar')
        ->singleFile();
}

The first time you add a file to the collection it will be stored as usual.

$yourModel->addMedia($pathToImage)->toMediaCollection('avatar');
$yourModel->getMedia('avatar')->count(); // returns 1
$yourModel->getFirstMediaUrl('avatar'); // will return an URL to the `$pathToImage` file

When adding another file to a single file collection the first one will be deleted.

// this will remove other files in the collection
$yourModel->addMedia($anotherPathToImage)->toMediaCollection('avatar');
$yourModel->getMedia('avatar')->count(); // returns 1
$yourModel->getFirstMediaUrl('avatar'); // will return an URL to the `$anotherPathToImage` file

This video shows you a demo of a single file collection.

##Limited file collections

Whenever you want to limit the amount of files inside a collection you can use the onlyKeepLatest(n) method. Whenever you add a file to a collection and exceed the given limit, MediaLibrary will delete the oldest file(s) and keep the collection size at n.

// in your model

public function registerMediaCollections(): void
{
    $this
        ->addMediaCollection('limited-collection')
        ->onlyKeepLatest(3);
}

For the first 3 files, nothing strange happens. The files get added to the collection and the collection now holds all 3 files. Whenever you decide to add a 4th file, MediaLibrary deletes the first file and keeps the latest 3.

$yourModel->addMedia($firstFile)->toMediaCollection('limited-collection');
$yourModel->getMedia('avatar')->count(); // returns 1
$yourModel->addMedia($secondFile)->toMediaCollection('limited-collection');
$yourModel->getMedia('avatar')->count(); // returns 2
$yourModel->addMedia($thirdFile)->toMediaCollection('limited-collection');
$yourModel->getMedia('avatar')->count(); // returns 3
$yourModel->addMedia($fourthFile)->toMediaCollection('limited-collection');
$yourModel->getMedia('avatar')->count(); // returns 3
$yourModel->getFirstMediaUrl('avatar'); // will return an url to the `$secondFile` file

##Registering media conversions

It's recommended that your first read the section on converting images before reading the following paragraphs.

Normally image conversions are registered inside the registerMediaConversions function on your model. However, images conversions can also be registered inside media collections.

use Spatie\MediaLibrary\MediaCollections\Models\Media;

// ...

public function registerMediaCollections(): void
{
    $this
        ->addMediaCollection('my-collection')
        ->registerMediaConversions(function (Media $media) {
            $this
                ->addMediaConversion('thumb')
                ->width(100)
                ->height(100);
        });
}

When adding an image to my-collection a thumbnail that fits inside 100x100 will be created.

$yourModel->addMedia($pathToImage)->toMediaCollection('my-collection');

$yourModel->getFirstMediaUrl('my-collection', 'thumb') // returns an url to a 100x100 version of the added image.

Take a look at the defining conversions section to learn all the functions you can tack on to addMediaConversion.

##Generating responsive images

If you want to also generate responsive images for any media added to a collection you defined, you can simply use withResponsiveImages while defining it.

// in your model

public function registerMediaCollections(): void
{
    $this
        ->addMediaCollection('my-collection')
        ->withResponsiveImages();
}