Upload a File using a URL instead of direct upload

Question

Is there a way to upload a file to a "File" field using either a direct upload ("Browse" button) or a URL input? I noticed that the built-in file field only support direct upload.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Yes, the built-in file field only support direct upload. For a URL input upload, you will need to develop a custom field type. It's possible with the cURL of PHP. Here I can share PHP code example how a remote file can be saved within a directory.

Example code:

$upload_dir_path = '/UPLOAD/DIRECTORY/PATH/';
$file_url = 'URL OF THE FILE';

$ch = curl_init(); 
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $file_url);

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_BINARYTRANSFER, 1); 
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FRESH_CONNECT, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 2);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 60);
$upload_file = curl_exec($ch);

file_put_contents($upload_dir_path, $upload_file);

I hope, you would be aware to develop an EE field type and above code example would be helpful for you.