# Upload

The Upload plugin is the backend powering the Media Library plugin available by default in the Strapi admin panel. Using either the Media Library from the admin panel or the upload API directly, you can upload any kind of file for use in your Strapi application.

By default Strapi provides a provider that uploads files to a local directory. Additional providers are available should you want to upload your files to another location.

The providers maintained by Strapi include:

# Configuration

This section details configuration options for the default upload provider. If using another provider (e.g. AWS S3 or Rackspace), see the available configuration parameters in that provider's documentation.

# Local server

By default Strapi accepts localServer configurations for locally uploaded files. These will be passed as the options for koa-static (opens new window).

You can provide them by creating or editing the ./config/plugins.js file. The following example sets the max-age header.

# Max file size

Currently the Strapi middleware in charge of parsing requests needs to be configured to support file sizes larger than the default of 200MB in addition to provider options passed to the upload plugin for sizeLimit.

✋ CAUTION

You may also need to adjust any upstream proxies, load balancers, or firewalls to allow for larger file sizes.
(e.g. Nginx (opens new window) has a config setting called client_max_body_size that will need to be adjusted since it's default is only 1mb.)

The library we use is koa-body (opens new window), and it uses the node-formidable (opens new window) library to process files.

You can pass configuration to the middleware directly by setting it in the body middleware configuration in ./config/middlewares.js:

In addition to the middleware configuration, you can pass the sizeLimit, which is an integer in bytes, in the providerOptions of the plugin configuration in ./config/plugins.js:

# Responsive Images

When the Enable responsive friendly upload setting is enabled in the settings panel the plugin will generate the following responsive image sizes:

Name	Largest Dimension
large	1000px
medium	750px
small	500px

These sizes can be overridden in ./config/plugins.js:

✋ CAUTION

Breakpoint changes will only apply to new images, existing images will not be resized or have new sizes generated.

# Endpoints

Method	Path	Description
GET	/api/upload/files	Get a list of files
GET	/api/upload/files/:id	Get a specific file
POST	/api/upload	Upload files
DELETE	/api/upload/files/:id	Delete a file

✏️ NOTE

Folders are an admin panel feature and are not part of the REST or the GraphQL API. Files uploaded through the REST or GraphQL API are located in the automatically created "API Uploads" folder.

# Examples

# Upload files

Upload one or more files to your application.

The following parameters are accepted:

files: The file(s) to upload. The value(s) can be a Buffer or Stream.

✋ CAUTION

You have to send FormData in your request body.

# Upload entry files

Upload one or more files that will be linked to a specific entry.

The following parameters are accepted:

Parameter	Description
`files`	The file(s) to upload. The value(s) can be a Buffer or Stream.
`path` (optional)	The folder where the file(s) will be uploaded to (only supported on strapi-provider-upload-aws-s3).
`refId`	The ID of the entry which the file(s) will be linked to.
`ref`	The unique ID (uid) of the model which the file(s) will be linked to (see more below).
`source` (optional)	The name of the plugin where the model is located.
`field`	The field of the entry which the file(s) will be precisely linked to.

For example, given the Restaurant model attributes:

// path: ./src/api/restaurant/content-types/restaurant/schema.json

{
  // ...
  "attributes": {
    "name": {
      "type": "string"
    },
    "cover": {
      "type": "media",
      "multiple": false,
    }
  }
// ...
}

The corresponding code would be:

<form>
  <!-- Can be multiple files if you setup "collection" instead of "model" -->
  <input type="file" name="files" />
  <input type="text" name="ref" value="api::restaurant.restaurant" />
  <input type="text" name="refId" value="5c126648c7415f0c0ef1bccd" />
  <input type="text" name="field" value="cover" />
  <input type="submit" value="Submit" />
</form>

<script type="text/javascript">
  const form = document.querySelector('form');

  form.addEventListener('submit', async (e) => {
    e.preventDefault();

    await fetch('/api/upload', {
      method: 'post',
      body: new FormData(e.target)
    });
  });
</script>

✋ CAUTION

You have to send FormData in your request body.

# Upload files at entry creation

You can also add files during your entry creation.

For example, given the Restaurant model attributes:

// path: ./src/api/restaurant/content-types/restaurant/schema.json

{
  // ...
  "attributes": {
    "name": {
      "type": "string"
    },
    "cover": {
      "type": "media",
      "multiple": false,
    }
  }
  // ...
}

The corresponding code would be:

<form>
  <!-- Can be multiple files if you setup "collection" instead of "model" -->
  <input type="text" name="name" />
  <input type="file" name="cover" />
  <input type="submit" value="Submit" />
</form>

<script type="text/javascript">
  const form = document.querySelector('form');

  form.addEventListener('submit', async (e) => {
    e.preventDefault();

    const data = {};
    const formData = new FormData();

    form.elements
      .forEach(({ name, type, value, files, ...element }) => {
        if (!['submit', 'file'].includes(type)) {
          data[name] = value;
        } else if (type === 'file') {
          files.forEach((file) => {
            formData.append(`files.${name}`, file, file.name);
          });
        }
      });

    formData.append('data', JSON.stringify(data));

    await fetch('/api/restaurants', {
      method: 'post',
      body: formData
    });
  });
</script>

Your entry data has to be contained in a data key and you need to JSON.stringify this object. The keys for files need to be prefixed with files (e.g. for a cover attribute: files.cover).

💡 TIP

If you want to upload files for a component, you will have to specify the index of the item you want to add the file to: files.my_component_name[the_index].attribute_name

✋ CAUTION

You have to send FormData in your request body.

# Models definition

Adding a file attribute to a model (or the model of another plugin) is like adding a new association.

In the first example below, you will be able to upload and attach one file to the avatar attribute.

// path: ./src/api/restaurant/content-types/restaurant/schema.json

{
  // ...
  {
    "attributes": {
      "pseudo": {
        "type": "string",
        "required": true
      },
      "email": {
        "type": "email",
        "required": true,
        "unique": true
      },
      "avatar": {
        "type": "media",
        "multiple": false,
      }
    }
  }
  // ...
}

In our second example, you can upload and attach multiple pictures to the restaurant.

// path: ./src/api/restaurant/content-types/restaurant/schema.json

{
  // ...
  {
    "attributes": {
      "name": {
        "type": "string",
        "required": true
      },
      "covers": {
        "type": "media",
        "multiple": true,
      }
    }
  }
  // ...
}

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