Laravel Public url for storage files

Question

I want to retrieve public url for all the files stored using

storage::putFile('public/spares');

So, this is the issue I'm using

storage::files('public/spares');

but it provides this output from laravel storage directory

public/spares/image1.jpg
public/spares/image2.jpg
public/spares/image3.jpg

how can I get the public link for the above

http://localhost/laravel/public/storage/spares/image1.jpg
http://localhost/laravel/public/storage/spares/image2.jpg
http://localhost/laravel/public/storage/spares/image3.jpg

**Edit **

Sending last modified data of files to view

$docs = File::files('storage/document');
$lastmodified = [];
foreach ($docs as $key => $value) {
   $docs[$key] = asset($value);
   $lastmodified[$key] = File::lastmodified($value);
}
return view('stock.document',compact('docs','lastmodified'));

Is this correct

Answer 1

First you have to create the symbolic link from your public/storage directory to your storage/app/public directory so you can access the files. You can do that with:

php artisan storage:link

So then you can store your documents with:

Storage::putFile('spares', $file);

And access them as an asset with:

asset('storage/spares/filename.ext');

Check out the documentation on the public disk

Answer 2

What about Storage::url? It works even for local storage.

You can find more here: https://laravel.com/docs/5.4/filesystem#file-urls

If you want to return all files' urls from the directory, you can do something like this:

return collect(Storage::files($directory))->map(function($file) {
    return Storage::url($file);
})

Don't forget to inject the \Illuminate\Filesystem\FilesystemManager instead of the Storage facade if you are looking for a not-facade way.

Edit:

There are 2 (or more) ways how you can deal with modified date:

Pass files to the view.

|ou can pass your Storage::files($directory) directly to the view and then in your template use following:

// controller:

return view('view', ['files' => Storage::files($directory)]);

// template:

@foreach($files as $file)
   {{ Storage::url($file) }} - {{ $file->lastModified }} // I'm not sure about lastModified property, but you get the point
@endforeach

Return an array:

return collect(Storage::files($directory))->map(function($file) {
     return [
         'file' => Storage::url($file),
         'modified' => $file->lastModified // or something like this
     ]
})->toArray()

Answer 3

I know this question is quite old, but i am putting this answer for anyone still having this issue from laravel 5.5+

To solve the issue update your filesystem's configuration by adding the 'url' key like below:

'public' => [
        'driver' => 'local',
        'root' => storage_path('app/public'),
        'url' => env('APP_URL').'/storage',
        'visibility' => 'public',
    ],

Hope it helps :)

Answer 4

Well I figured out the solution, instead of searching the storage

$docs = Storage:files('public/spares');

we can search the symbolic link

$docs = File:files('storage/spares');

then run it through the asset() function to get the public URL. Is there a better solution?