Media Library Development

Overview

Use spatie/laravel-medialibrary to associate files with Eloquent models. Supports image/video conversions, responsive images, multiple collections, and various storage disks.

When to Activate

• Activate when working with file uploads, media attachments, or image processing in Laravel.
• Activate when code references HasMedia, InteractsWithMedia, the Media model, or media collections/conversions.
• Activate when the user wants to add, retrieve, convert, or manage files attached to Eloquent models.

Scope

• In scope: media uploads, collections, conversions, responsive images, custom properties, file retrieval, path/URL generation.
• Out of scope: general file storage without Eloquent association, non-Laravel frameworks.

Workflow

1. Identify the task (model setup, adding media, defining conversions, retrieving files, etc.).
2. Read references/medialibrary-guide.md and focus on the relevant section.
3. Apply the patterns from the reference, keeping code minimal and Laravel-native.

Core Concepts

Model Setup

Every model that should have media must implement HasMedia and use the InteractsWithMedia trait:

use Spatie\MediaLibrary\HasMedia;
use Spatie\MediaLibrary\InteractsWithMedia;

class BlogPost extends Model implements HasMedia
{
    use InteractsWithMedia;
}

Adding Media

$blogPost->addMedia($file)->toMediaCollection('images');
$blogPost->addMediaFromUrl($url)->toMediaCollection('images');
$blogPost->addMediaFromRequest('file')->toMediaCollection('images');

Defining Collections

public function registerMediaCollections(): void
{
    $this->addMediaCollection('avatar')->singleFile();
    $this->addMediaCollection('downloads')->useDisk('s3');
}

Defining Conversions

use Spatie\MediaLibrary\MediaCollections\Models\Media;
use Spatie\Image\Enums\Fit;

public function registerMediaConversions(?Media $media = null): void
{
    $this->addMediaConversion('thumb')
        ->fit(Fit::Contain, 300, 300)
        ->nonQueued();
}

Retrieving Media

$url = $model->getFirstMediaUrl('images');
$thumbUrl = $model->getFirstMediaUrl('images', 'thumb');
$allMedia = $model->getMedia('images');

Do and Don't

Do:

• Always implement the HasMedia interface alongside the InteractsWithMedia trait.
• Use ?Media $media = null as the parameter for registerMediaConversions().
• Call ->toMediaCollection() to finalize adding media.
• Use ->nonQueued() for conversions that should run synchronously.
• Use ->singleFile() on collections that should only hold one file.
• Use Spatie\Image\Enums\Fit enum values for fit methods.

Don't:

• Don't forget to run php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Spatie\MediaLibrary\MediaLibraryServiceProvider" --tag="medialibrary-migrations" before migrating.
• Don't use env() for disk configuration; use config() or set it in config/media-library.php.
• Don't call addMedia() without calling toMediaCollection() — the media won't be saved.
• Don't reference conversion names that aren't registered in registerMediaConversions().

References

• references/medialibrary-guide.md