Populating database with images with Faker

Hi @dust

Just remove the "public/storage/" since it is the default

'picture' => $faker->image('images',400,300)

You may have to create the symlink as well if not done yet: https://laravel.com/docs/5.4/structure#the-storage-directory

or you may want to play with something like

$storage_path = storage_path() . 'my specific/path'

or if for testing purposes only, check the doc about https://laravel.com/docs/5.4/mocking#storage-fake

Hi @mdecooman I have a link already,

Changing to

'picture' => $faker->image('images',400,300)

Does not work for some reason: InvalidArgumentException with message 'Cannot write to directory "images"'

Hi @dust

Try this, should work. You need to tell Laravel the full path to use.

$filePath = storage_path('images');
'picture' => $faker->image($filePath,400,300)

Ah I forgot too. If you probably need to create the folders on the fly as well so add this to create the path if it doesn't exist:

$filepath = storage_path('images');

    if(!File::exists($filepath)){
        File::makeDirectory($filepath);  //follow the declaration to see the complete signature
    }

Hi @mdecooman , the folders are alreday created.

storage_path('images') does not work too. This time I'm getting: InvalidArgumentException with message 'Cannot write to directory "/var/www/html/resources/examples/storage/images"' This directory does not exists, because it is wrong. But I get your idea and changed to:

$filePath = public_path('storage/images');

which works but adds full path before image: /var/www/html/resources/examples/public/storage/images/e170165d83e9fbae88360c283e04df7d.jpg

And my browser didn't like it again. It wants: storage/images/e170165d83e9fbae88360c283e04df7d.jpg

Hi @dust

Just out of curiousity, can you tweak your user factory model to add an avatar?

Add the column avatar in your db, then modify the factory model for user

$factory->define(App\User::class, function (Faker\Generator $faker) {
    static $password;

    $filepath = storage_path('avatars');

    if(!File::exists($filepath)){
        File::makeDirectory($filepath);
    }

    return [
        'name' => $faker->name,
        'email' => $faker->unique()->safeEmail,
        'password' => $password ?: $password = bcrypt('secret'),
        'remember_token' => str_random(10),
        'avatar' => $faker->image($filepath,400, 300)
    ];

Then in Tinker just create a new user (this example is the result of a successful test on my Mac)

>>> factory('App\User')->create();
=> App\User {#856
     name: "Lloyd Keeling",
     client_id: 17,
     email: "iliana01@example.net",
     avatar: "/the/path/to/laravel/storage/avatars/07abbdfe78165d505710148c290f9289.jpg",
     updated_at: "2017-04-18 19:54:18",
     created_at: "2017-04-18 19:54:18",
     id: 13,
   }

What is your environment? I would look into the user running your web server and its permissions.

Hi @dust

Did you solve your issue?

Hi @mdecooman and sorry for late replay.

No this does not solve my issue :(

If I tweak my factory model it creates folder and image in that folder, but it is not displayed - 404. The path is "full-project-path/storage/avatars/avatar.jpg"

After tweaking my image path in browser I found, that I can only show images from my public directory. In my case "/public/storage/avatars/avatar.jpg"

So in this case it is better to use public_path(), but either ways I have to edit my path in DB because "full-project-path/public/storage/avatars/avatar.jpg" in browser does not show anything.

In my view i have:

<img src="{{ $item->picture }}" >

or

<img src="{{ $user->avatar }}" >

@dust

The public folder needs a symlink to your storage. That is why the php artisan command, exists:

php artisan storage:link

So you should be able to use your storage_path() (remove the avatars folder form your public before)

About environment I'm on Linux machine with apache web server and php 7.1. Later I'll test on mac with MAMP Pro.

I alreday made a link with:

php artisan storage:link

If I run this again I'm getting: The "public/storage" directory already exists.

The link is from "public/storage" to "storage/app/public"

And storage_path() writes in "storage"

@dust

Yeah indeed... I wrote too fast.

The issue is from faker basically that writes the wrong path in DB. In the meantime, since it is just for test purposes or view design, I would use the

'image' => $faker->imageUrl(400, 300)

Then once you do upload avatars or else from your UI, you can get the path right from your controller. Will keep digging since I want to get the solution too.

@dust

From the faker github, we can see the signature of the image function

public static function image($dir = null, $width = 640, $height = 480, $category = null, $fullPath = true, $randomize = true, $word = null)

// setting the $fullPath = false  should solve our issue (testing now)

So a solution is:

'picture' => $faker->image('public/storage/images',400,300, null, false) 

and in your view you just do sthg similar as

<img src="/my/path/{{ $item->picture }}" >

Hi @mdecooman,

that work's great :)

Thank you!

Phew, we made it ;-)

Hi @mdecooman

I tried above method, but it says

[InvalidArgumentException]
  Cannot write to directory "public/uploads/homeslider"

In my Modelfactory I have written like:

'image' =>  $faker->image('public/uploads/homeslider',640,480, null, false) 

Any solution?

Thank you

I'm not sure that you can write in public directory that way.

You'll have to make a link:

php artisan storage:link

This will make a link named storage in your public directory which points to storage/app/public.

Then put your files in public/storage. For example /public/storage/uploads/homeslider

Modify your code and try again.

Hi @napestershine

 $faker->image('public/uploads/homeslider',640,480, null, false) 

will try to create the file from the storage folder so as @dust mentioned, you need to create a symlink to connect the storage to public and make sure you have the corresponding path.

//so basically you need to do the symlink and change, for example like

 $faker->image('app/public/images',640,480, null, false) 

// which would correspond to call from your view
<img src="/images/{{ $item->picture }}" >

Not tested but you get the principle.

PS: Read carefully the documentation of Laravel, it will give you all the clues. Problem is that we often read too fast the doc when every line matters...

Let us know if you still have issues.

In addition when the folder does not exist you can do this before.

$filepath = storage_path('app/public/images');
    if(!File::exists($filepath)){
        File::makeDirectory($filepath);
    }

and use the variable instead for the paths

$faker->image($filepath,640,480, null, false) 

I tried to follow but received an error

PHP warning:  unlink(D:\Xamp2\htdocs\www\medium\storage\app/public/images\48b75cb7e78c79ded34b101fce0a401d.jpg): Resource temporarily unavailable in D:\Xamp2\htdocs\www\medium\vendor\fzaninotto\faker\src\Faker\Provider\Image.php on line 91

Any help?

I have get the same problem :

PHP Warning: unlink(public/images\a8d2c96e42f0374f32821f901cbfbe9c.jpg): Resource temporarily unavailable in C:\wamp64\www\cmiejsce\vendor\fzaninotto\faker\src\Faker\Provider\Image.php on line 91

the code is :

$factory->define(App\Photo::class, function (Faker $faker) {

return [
   'file' => $faker->image('public/images',400,300, null, false)
  
];

});

I found a solution in -> Faker\Provider\Image.php you must add curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);

if (function_exists('curl_exec')) { // use cURL //$fp = fopen($filepath, 'w'); $fp = fopen($filepath, 'w+');

        $ch = curl_init($url);

         curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FILE, $fp); //true

        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);

        $success = curl_exec($ch) && curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE) === 200;


        if ($success) {
            fclose($fp);
        } else {

            unlink($filepath);
        }


        curl_close($ch);

}

For anyone looking for an alternative solution, that will probably look more like how your real code is setup:

use Faker\Generator as Faker;
use Illuminate\Http\File;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Storage;
$factory->define(App\MyModel::class, function (Faker $faker) {
$image = $faker->image();
$imageFile = new File($image);
return [
'image' => Storage::disk('public')->putFile('images', $imageFile),
];
});

@IAMTODDPERKINS - This is super useful if you want to upload the image to S3, thanks!

Could you do this kind of thing with Audio files? Using Factories for dev. How would you do that and be able to test if it plays after playlist creation and such. Or would you use some kind of dummy file that doesn't actually play?

This is what I was looking for. Thanks

@mdecooman Thanks for the solution, it works for me, I ask you one more question, how we can set the $faker image name in the database because now it's generating image name like "6f80f67fc51796a2f52fcd8fe5b24678.jpg".

Faker generates an image with a random name. It is by design (see https://github.com/fzaninotto/Faker/blob/master/src/Faker/Provider/Image.php). Up to you to do whatever you need to with that image: change its name/path, etc. Not sure to see the use case here though.

Hi @dust, I know this was long answered by @mdecooman but I would like to share a solution that borrows mostly from what @mdecooman has proposed but adds the smart portion you alluded to in your question.

private function imageGenerator(): string
    {
        $photo_path = storage_path('app/public/profile-photos');

        if (!File::exists($photo_path)) {
            File::makeDirectory($photo_path);
        }
		//Alternative Solution 1
		//$photo_path = $this->faker->image(dir: $photo_path, width: 948, height: 1080, fullPath: false);
        //$photo_path = 'profile-photos/' . $photo_path;

		//Alternative Solution 2
        $photo_path = $this->faker->image(dir: $photo_path, width: 948, height: 1080);

        $token = 'profile';

        if (($offset = strpos($photo_path, $token)) !== false) {
            $photo_path = substr($photo_path, $offset);

            //$photo_path = explode('app/public/', $photo_path, 2)[1];
        }

        return $photo_path;
    }