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Article Content:How to upload base64 file in PHP

How to upload base64 file in PHP

Uploading files or images from mobile app is a most common case in many projects, there are two ways to finish this task, one of them is most popular, much safer, and considering as a best practice, which is encoding the uploaded file as a base64 string in your mobile application and send it as a normal post to the PHP API.

Java, objective c, c# and also Javascript has an option to encode files to base64 strings before sending it to the server

In this tutorial we will create a simple API to upload base64 encoded files or images to PHP server and also you will learn:

1-How to decode any file from base64?
2-How to give the file unique name?
3-How to save the file into MYSQL database table?
4-How to test the API with postman?
5-How to detect mime type and extension dynamically?

So enough talking and let’s do it...

First Step: Create Table Schema

CREATE TABLE `uploaded_files` (
  `id` int(11) NOT NULL,
  `file_name` varchar(255) NOT NULL
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;
ALTER TABLE `uploaded_files`
  ADD PRIMARY KEY (`id`);
  ALTER TABLE `uploaded_files`
  MODIFY `id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT;

Second Step: Create uploader.php file

put this file into your root like WWW or HTDOCS, then copy the full code below and paste into the file, which contains 3 functions :

Upload_file() , this function to take encoded file as a parameter, decoded it, save as a file, and return JSON message

Mime2ext(), this function to take mime type as a parameter and return the equivalent extension

database_saving() , this function to save the file name and extension into database

<?php
/*
to take encoded files as a parameter,decoded,save as a file,and return json message
*/
function upload_file($encoded_string){
    $target_dir = ''; // add the specific path to save the file
    $decoded_file = base64_decode($encoded_string); // decode the file
    $mime_type = finfo_buffer(finfo_open(), $decoded_file, FILEINFO_MIME_TYPE); // extract mime type
    $extension = mime2ext($mime_type); // extract extension from mime type
    $file = uniqid() .'.'. $extension; // rename file as a unique name
    $file_dir = $target_dir . uniqid() .'.'. $extension;
    try {
        file_put_contents($file_dir, $decoded_file); // save
        database_saving($file);
        header('Content-Type: application/json');
        echo json_encode("File Uploaded Successfully");
    } catch (Exception $e) {
        header('Content-Type: application/json');
        echo json_encode($e->getMessage());
    }

}
/*
to take mime type as a parameter and return the equivalent extension
*/
function mime2ext($mime){
    $all_mimes = '{"png":["image\/png","image\/x-png"],"bmp":["image\/bmp","image\/x-bmp",
    "image\/x-bitmap","image\/x-xbitmap","image\/x-win-bitmap","image\/x-windows-bmp",
    "image\/ms-bmp","image\/x-ms-bmp","application\/bmp","application\/x-bmp",
    "application\/x-win-bitmap"],"gif":["image\/gif"],"jpeg":["image\/jpeg",
    "image\/pjpeg"],"xspf":["application\/xspf+xml"],"vlc":["application\/videolan"],
    "wmv":["video\/x-ms-wmv","video\/x-ms-asf"],"au":["audio\/x-au"],
    "ac3":["audio\/ac3"],"flac":["audio\/x-flac"],"ogg":["audio\/ogg",
    "video\/ogg","application\/ogg"],"kmz":["application\/vnd.google-earth.kmz"],
    "kml":["application\/vnd.google-earth.kml+xml"],"rtx":["text\/richtext"],
    "rtf":["text\/rtf"],"jar":["application\/java-archive","application\/x-java-application",
    "application\/x-jar"],"zip":["application\/x-zip","application\/zip",
    "application\/x-zip-compressed","application\/s-compressed","multipart\/x-zip"],
    "7zip":["application\/x-compressed"],"xml":["application\/xml","text\/xml"],
    "svg":["image\/svg+xml"],"3g2":["video\/3gpp2"],"3gp":["video\/3gp","video\/3gpp"],
    "mp4":["video\/mp4"],"m4a":["audio\/x-m4a"],"f4v":["video\/x-f4v"],"flv":["video\/x-flv"],
    "webm":["video\/webm"],"aac":["audio\/x-acc"],"m4u":["application\/vnd.mpegurl"],
    "pdf":["application\/pdf","application\/octet-stream"],
    "pptx":["application\/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation"],
    "ppt":["application\/powerpoint","application\/vnd.ms-powerpoint","application\/vnd.ms-office",
    "application\/msword"],"docx":["application\/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document"],
    "xlsx":["application\/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet","application\/vnd.ms-excel"],
    "xl":["application\/excel"],"xls":["application\/msexcel","application\/x-msexcel","application\/x-ms-excel",
    "application\/x-excel","application\/x-dos_ms_excel","application\/xls","application\/x-xls"],
    "xsl":["text\/xsl"],"mpeg":["video\/mpeg"],"mov":["video\/quicktime"],"avi":["video\/x-msvideo",
    "video\/msvideo","video\/avi","application\/x-troff-msvideo"],"movie":["video\/x-sgi-movie"],
    "log":["text\/x-log"],"txt":["text\/plain"],"css":["text\/css"],"html":["text\/html"],
    "wav":["audio\/x-wav","audio\/wave","audio\/wav"],"xhtml":["application\/xhtml+xml"],
    "tar":["application\/x-tar"],"tgz":["application\/x-gzip-compressed"],"psd":["application\/x-photoshop",
    "image\/vnd.adobe.photoshop"],"exe":["application\/x-msdownload"],"js":["application\/x-javascript"],
    "mp3":["audio\/mpeg","audio\/mpg","audio\/mpeg3","audio\/mp3"],"rar":["application\/x-rar","application\/rar",
    "application\/x-rar-compressed"],"gzip":["application\/x-gzip"],"hqx":["application\/mac-binhex40",
    "application\/mac-binhex","application\/x-binhex40","application\/x-mac-binhex40"],
    "cpt":["application\/mac-compactpro"],"bin":["application\/macbinary","application\/mac-binary",
    "application\/x-binary","application\/x-macbinary"],"oda":["application\/oda"],
    "ai":["application\/postscript"],"smil":["application\/smil"],"mif":["application\/vnd.mif"],
    "wbxml":["application\/wbxml"],"wmlc":["application\/wmlc"],"dcr":["application\/x-director"],
    "dvi":["application\/x-dvi"],"gtar":["application\/x-gtar"],"php":["application\/x-httpd-php",
    "application\/php","application\/x-php","text\/php","text\/x-php","application\/x-httpd-php-source"],
    "swf":["application\/x-shockwave-flash"],"sit":["application\/x-stuffit"],"z":["application\/x-compress"],
    "mid":["audio\/midi"],"aif":["audio\/x-aiff","audio\/aiff"],"ram":["audio\/x-pn-realaudio"],
    "rpm":["audio\/x-pn-realaudio-plugin"],"ra":["audio\/x-realaudio"],"rv":["video\/vnd.rn-realvideo"],
    "jp2":["image\/jp2","video\/mj2","image\/jpx","image\/jpm"],"tiff":["image\/tiff"],
    "eml":["message\/rfc822"],"pem":["application\/x-x509-user-cert","application\/x-pem-file"],
    "p10":["application\/x-pkcs10","application\/pkcs10"],"p12":["application\/x-pkcs12"],
    "p7a":["application\/x-pkcs7-signature"],"p7c":["application\/pkcs7-mime","application\/x-pkcs7-mime"],"p7r":["application\/x-pkcs7-certreqresp"],"p7s":["application\/pkcs7-signature"],"crt":["application\/x-x509-ca-cert","application\/pkix-cert"],"crl":["application\/pkix-crl","application\/pkcs-crl"],"pgp":["application\/pgp"],"gpg":["application\/gpg-keys"],"rsa":["application\/x-pkcs7"],"ics":["text\/calendar"],"zsh":["text\/x-scriptzsh"],"cdr":["application\/cdr","application\/coreldraw","application\/x-cdr","application\/x-coreldraw","image\/cdr","image\/x-cdr","zz-application\/zz-winassoc-cdr"],"wma":["audio\/x-ms-wma"],"vcf":["text\/x-vcard"],"srt":["text\/srt"],"vtt":["text\/vtt"],"ico":["image\/x-icon","image\/x-ico","image\/vnd.microsoft.icon"],"csv":["text\/x-comma-separated-values","text\/comma-separated-values","application\/vnd.msexcel"],"json":["application\/json","text\/json"]}';
    $all_mimes = json_decode($all_mimes,true);
    foreach ($all_mimes as $key => $value) {
        if(array_search($mime,$value) !== false) return $key;
    }
    return false;
}
/*
to save the file name and extension into database
*/
function database_saving($file){
    $servername = "localhost";
    $username = "root";
    $password = "";
    $dbname = "demo";

// Create connection
    $conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);
// Check connection
    if ($conn->connect_error) {
        die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
    }
    $sql = "INSERT INTO uploaded_files (file_name)VALUES ('$file')";
    $conn->query($sql);
    $conn->close();

}

// invoke upload_file function and pass your input as a parameter
$encoded_string = !empty($_POST['base64_file']) ? $_POST['base64_file'] : 'V2ViZWFzeXN0ZXAgOik=';
upload_file($encoded_string);

Third Step: Call the API throughout Postman

base64 upload file php

Send a base64 string throughout postman, when API loaded it will invoke Upload_file() function, which decode the file, extract the mime type dynamically using  finfo_buffer extension, also extract extension by mime using mime2ext() function, add a unique name for the file, finally save it into PHP server and MySQL server

Important Note: To use finfo_buffer() function you should insure that you already enable fileinfo module in your server

Final words

I hope this tutorial helps you to understand how it easily uploads files into PHP server and I hope to add more tutorials as soon as possible about React native and Redux because nowadays I am so excited about this subject.

 

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  • Bhushan Lal
    Your tutorial was very helpful. I found an issue in the code $decoded_file = base64_decode($encoded_string); It should be like: $filedata = explode(',', $encoded_string); $decoded_file = base64_decode($filedata[1]); Thanks!
    July 8, 2018
    Reply
  • gurpreet
    very helpful
    February 22, 2019
    Reply
  • Priyanka Bhanopa
    Thank You so much for this code,easyly upload my all type file image.
    October 2, 2019
    Reply
  • Garland Oakes
    Do you have a copy of the files? i can't seem to download them.
    January 23, 2021
    Reply

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