Validating a file upload

If we want to allow users to upload a file through our web form, we may want to restrict which kind of file they upload. Using Laravel's Validator class, we can check for a specific file type, and even limit the upload to a certain file size.

Getting ready

For this recipe, we need a standard Laravel installation, and an example file to test our upload.

How to do it...

Follow these steps to complete this recipe:

1. Create a route for the form in our routes.php file:

   Route::get('fileform', function()
   {
       return View::make('fileform');
   });

2. Create the form view:

   <h1>File Upload</h1>
   <?php $messages =  $errors->all('<p style="color:red">:message</p>') ?>
   <?php
   foreach ($messages as $msg)
   {
       echo $msg;
   }
   ?>
   <?= Form::open(array('files' => TRUE)) ?>
   <?= Form::label('myfile', 'My File (Word or Text doc)') ?>
   <br>
   <?= Form::file('myfile') ?>
   <br>
   <?= Form::submit('Send it!') ?>
   <?= Form::close() ?...