1. Home
  2. Documentation
  3. Reference
  4. Constraints
  5. File
WARNING: You are browsing the documentation for Symfony 3.3 which is not maintained anymore. Consider upgrading your projects to Symfony 5.1.

File

3.3 version
Maintained
3.4 4.4 5.1 current 5.0 5.2 master
Unmaintained
2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 3.0 3.1 3.2 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3

File

Validates that a value is a valid “file”, which can be one of the following:

  • A string (or object with a __toString() method) path to an existing file;
  • A valid Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\File\File object (including objects of class Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\File\UploadedFile).

This constraint is commonly used in forms with the FileType form field.

Tip

If the file you’re validating is an image, try the Image constraint.

Applies to property or method
Options
Class Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints\File
Validator Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints\FileValidator

Basic Usage

This constraint is most commonly used on a property that will be rendered in a form as a FileType field. For example, suppose you’re creating an author form where you can upload a “bio” PDF for the author. In your form, the bioFile property would be a file type. The Author class might look as follows:

// src/AppBundle/Entity/Author.php
namespace AppBundle\Entity;

use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\File\File;

class Author
{
    protected $bioFile;

    public function setBioFile(File $file = null)
    {
        $this->bioFile = $file;
    }

    public function getBioFile()
    {
        return $this->bioFile;
    }
}

To guarantee that the bioFile File object is valid and that it is below a certain file size and a valid PDF, add the following:

  • Annotations
     1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
    // src/AppBundle/Entity/Author.php
namespace AppBundle\Entity;

use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints as Assert;

class Author
{
    /**
     * @Assert\File(
     *     maxSize = "1024k",
     *     mimeTypes = {"application/pdf", "application/x-pdf"},
     *     mimeTypesMessage = "Please upload a valid PDF"
     * )
     */
    protected $bioFile;
}
  • YAML
    1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
    # src/AppBundle/Resources/config/validation.yml
AppBundle\Entity\Author:
    properties:
        bioFile:
            - File:
                maxSize: 1024k
                mimeTypes: [application/pdf, application/x-pdf]
                mimeTypesMessage: Please upload a valid PDF
  • XML
     1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
    <!-- src/AppBundle/Resources/config/validation.xml -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<constraint-mapping xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/constraint-mapping"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/constraint-mapping http://symfony.com/schema/dic/constraint-mapping/constraint-mapping-1.0.xsd">

    <class name="AppBundle\Entity\Author">
        <property name="bioFile">
            <constraint name="File">
                <option name="maxSize">1024k</option>
                <option name="mimeTypes">
                    <value>application/pdf</value>
                    <value>application/x-pdf</value>
                </option>
                <option name="mimeTypesMessage">Please upload a valid PDF</option>
            </constraint>
        </property>
    </class>
</constraint-mapping>
  • PHP
     1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
    // src/AppBundle/Entity/Author.php
namespace AppBundle\Entity;

use Symfony\Component\Validator\Mapping\ClassMetadata;
use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints as Assert;

class Author
{
    public static function loadValidatorMetadata(ClassMetadata $metadata)
    {
        $metadata->addPropertyConstraint('bioFile', new Assert\File(array(
            'maxSize' => '1024k',
            'mimeTypes' => array(
                'application/pdf',
                'application/x-pdf',
            ),
            'mimeTypesMessage' => 'Please upload a valid PDF',
        )));
    }
}

The bioFile property is validated to guarantee that it is a real file. Its size and mime type are also validated because the appropriate options have been specified.

Options

maxSize

type: mixed

If set, the size of the underlying file must be below this file size in order to be valid. The size of the file can be given in one of the following formats:

Suffix Unit Name value e.g.
  byte 1 byte 4096
k kilobyte 1,000 bytes 200k
M megabyte 1,000,000 bytes 2M
Ki kibibyte 1,024 bytes 32Ki
Mi mebibyte 1,048,576 bytes 8Mi

For more information about the difference between binary and SI prefixes, see Wikipedia: Binary prefix.

binaryFormat

type: boolean default: null

When true, the sizes will be displayed in messages with binary-prefixed units (KiB, MiB). When false, the sizes will be displayed with SI-prefixed units (kB, MB). When null, then the binaryFormat will be guessed from the value defined in the maxSize option.

For more information about the difference between binary and SI prefixes, see Wikipedia: Binary prefix.

mimeTypes

type: array or string

If set, the validator will check that the mime type of the underlying file is equal to the given mime type (if a string) or exists in the collection of given mime types (if an array).

You can find a list of existing mime types on the IANA website.

maxSizeMessage

type: string default: The file is too large ({{ size }} {{ suffix }}). Allowed maximum size is {{ limit }} {{ suffix }}.

The message displayed if the file is larger than the maxSize option.

mimeTypesMessage

type: string default: The mime type of the file is invalid ({{ type }}). Allowed mime types are {{ types }}.

The message displayed if the mime type of the file is not a valid mime type per the mimeTypes option.

disallowEmptyMessage

type: string default: An empty file is not allowed.

This constraint checks if the uploaded file is empty (i.e. 0 bytes). If it is, this message is displayed.

notFoundMessage

type: string default: The file could not be found.

The message displayed if no file can be found at the given path. This error is only likely if the underlying value is a string path, as a File object cannot be constructed with an invalid file path.

notReadableMessage

type: string default: The file is not readable.

The message displayed if the file exists, but the PHP is_readable() function fails when passed the path to the file.

uploadIniSizeErrorMessage

type: string default: The file is too large. Allowed maximum size is {{ limit }} {{ suffix }}.

The message that is displayed if the uploaded file is larger than the upload_max_filesize php.ini setting.

uploadFormSizeErrorMessage

type: string default: The file is too large.

The message that is displayed if the uploaded file is larger than allowed by the HTML file input field.

uploadErrorMessage

type: string default: The file could not be uploaded.

The message that is displayed if the uploaded file could not be uploaded for some unknown reason, such as the file upload failed or it couldn’t be written to disk.

payload

type: mixed default: null

This option can be used to attach arbitrary domain-specific data to a constraint. The configured payload is not used by the Validator component, but its processing is completely up to you.

For example, you may want to use several error levels to present failed constraints differently in the front-end depending on the severity of the error.

This work, including the code samples, is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 license.