Drupal7 File stream wrappers - where is file_get_contents() or file_load_data()?

Posted by dman on June 8, 2010 at 6:59pm

I'm working through a module upgrade, and hit a bit of a standstill with the Drupal 7 file wrappers.

Simple case - I use file_save_upload() to upload a file from a form.
It creates a temporary, sorta-virtual file and tells me:

stdClass Object
(
    [uid] => 1
    [status] => 0
    [filename] => faqTerms.rdf
    [uri] => temporary://faqTerms.rdf
    [filemime] => application/rdf+xml
    [filesize] => 1162
    [source] => file_upload
    [destination] => temporary://faqTerms.rdf
    [timestamp] => 1276023082
    [fid] => 6
)

Um, right.
So how do I read the contents of this uploaded file?

I can't see any read function in the public API, although there is a file_save_data() going the other way.

Is this a gap in the Drupal 7 API? Do I have to do it by hand?

I see in stream_wrappers.inc a declaration of stream_read() ... but where's good old file_get_contents() or equivalent?

For now, it seems I can go

<?php
  $file->filepath = drupal_realpath($file->uri);
  $data = file_get_contents($file->filepath);
?>

... but it feels like that is entirely undermining the point of the stream wrappers.

So what am I missing?

Comments

Take a look at

Posted by pobster on June 8, 2010 at 9:36pm

Take a look at http://api.drupal.org/api/function/hook_file_load/7 there's a whole lot to learn with D7...

Pobster

:-(

Posted by dman on June 9, 2010 at 4:27am

I saw file_load which will "Load a file object from the database.", and that's what hook_file_load helps.
.. but that's all just about the file. I can't find the API, or any examples in core, for reading the contents of the file.

I don't think I'm supposed to extend the stream wrapper class or whatever it takes just to get file_get_contents behavior .. but it's looking like that.

_{.dan. is the New Zealand Drupal Developer working on Government Web Standards}

PHP4 style?

Posted by dman on June 9, 2010 at 6:03am

Looking for examples, I found that file_managed_file_save_upload() is the closest example I could find to something using the new API. But when that calls file_save_upload() it gives it a specific destination, so it has no problem knowing the filepath.

However in my case I actually really like the [uri] => temporary:// behavior - because I'm just uploading some config to be read and temporary is great for this. Deducing the filepath and reading that is sorta OK, but breaks the stream method.

I still don't see any extant example of when the Drupal stream API will actually read a managed file. Does it need to be built?
Should there be a new method called file_get_contents in the wrapper interface to take care of the stream_open(), stream_read(), stream_close() (Can't link to api.d.o) or do we party like it's 1999 and still using PHP4 to do i by hand?

I think I could build the method - for local files anyway ... but I'm feeling I'm not seeing something that should be there.

(Context is taxonomy_xml that accepts file upload of text data that needs to be read into the system)

_{.dan. is the New Zealand Drupal Developer working on Government Web Standards}

Thanks .dan. !

Posted by SlyK on July 15, 2011 at 4:45pm

Thanks for workaround, dman. Just stucket at the same problem now... and found this post. Nice!