Upload & Store Images in Laravel with Validation and Storage

Handling image uploads is a common requirement in web development. Laravel makes this task simple and elegant with its built-in validation and file storage system. In this tutorial, we'll walk through how to upload and store images in Laravel the right way.

1. Setting Up the Form

Let's create a simple form to allow image uploads.

<form action="{{ route('image.upload') }}" method="POST" enctype="multipart/form-data">
    @csrf
    <input type="file" name="image">
    <button type="submit">Upload</button>
</form>

Note: Make sure to set enctype="multipart/form-data" in your form.

2. Creating the Route

Add a route to handle the form submission:

use App\Http\Controllers\ImageController;
 
Route::post('/upload-image', [ImageController::class, 'store'])->name('image.upload');

3. Creating the Controller

Generate a controller:

php artisan make:controller ImageController

Inside ImageController, add the store method:

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
 
public function store(Request $request)
{
    // Validate the image
    $request->validate([
        'image' => 'required|image|mimes:jpeg,png,jpg,gif|max:2048'
    ]);
 
    // Store the image
    $path = $request->file('image')->store('images', 'public');
 
    // You can now save $path to database if needed
 
    return back()->with('success', 'Image uploaded successfully!')->with('path', $path);
}

Validation Rules Explained:

• required — ensures the file is uploaded
• image — restricts to image file types
• mimes — allows specific extensions
• max — sets file size limit (in KB)

4. Configuring Storage

Ensure the public disk is set in your config/filesystems.php:

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

Then run the following to link storage to the public folder:

php artisan storage:link

This will create a symbolic link from public/storage to storage/app/public.

5. Displaying the Uploaded Image

You can now display the uploaded image using:

@if(session('path'))
    <img src="{{ asset('storage/' . session('path')) }}" alt="Uploaded Image" width="300">
@endif

Best Practices

• Always validate file types and sizes
• Store file paths in the database for reference
• Rename uploaded files if needed (to avoid name conflicts)
• Consider organizing uploads by user or date

Conclusion

Laravel provides a clean and robust way to handle image uploads. With validation, storage, and a few lines of code, you can implement a secure image upload system.

Need help with multiple image uploads or image resizing? Let me know and we’ll expand this guide!