File API changes from Drupal 6 to Drupal 7

Last updated on

14 October 2016

Drupal 7 will no longer be supported after January 5, 2025. Learn more and find resources for Drupal 7 sites

There are three key and pervasive things that happened to the File API between Drupal 6 and Drupal 7:

Any API that used to take a traditional filepath like "sites/default/files/something.txt" now must take a stream-oriented file path like "public://something.txt" or "private://something.txt".
Many APIs used to take a string if they were acting on an unmanaged file, or a file object if acting on a managed file. Now those functions have been split out, so we now have file_copy() (which takes a file object) and file_unmanaged_copy() (which takes a stream-oriented filepath like "public://example.txt").
file_create_path() and file_check_directory() were merged into file_prepare_directory().
A smaller item: drupal_realpath() must be used in place of realpath().

Summary of managed/unmanaged File API changes

Drupal 6	Drupal 7	Description
file_copy()	file_unmanaged_copy()	Copy a file to a new location without saving a record in the database.
n/a	file_copy()	Copies a file to a new location and adds a file record to the database. Also invokes hook_file_copy() so that other modules may act on the copy action.
file_move()	file_unmanaged_move()	Move a file to a new location but make no changes to the database.
n/a	file_move()	Move a file to a new location and update the file's database entry. Also invokes hook_file_move() so that other modules may act on the move action.
file_delete()	file_unmanaged_delete()	Delete a file.
n/a	file_delete()	Delete a file and its database record. Also invokes hook_file_delete() to let other modules perform clean-up actions when file is deleted.
file_save_data()	file_unmanaged_save_data()	Save a string to the specified destination but makes no changes to the database.
n/a	file_save_data()	Save a string to the specified destination and create a database file entry.
n/a	file_load()	Load a file object from the database. Also invokes hook_file_load() to allow other modules to do things as the file is loaded.
n/a	file_validate()	Check that a file meets the criteria specified by the validators. Accepts an associative array of callback functions used to validate the file. Also calls hook_file_validate() to let other modules perform validation on the new file.
n/a	file_save()	Save a file object to the database. Calls either hook_file_insert() or hook_file_update(), depending on whether a $file->fid is specified.

file_copy()

Drupal 6.x:

file_copy($source, $paths['target'] . $base);
$paths['files'][] = $source;

Drupal 7.x:

$filepath = file_unmanaged_copy($source, $paths['target'] . $base);
$paths['files'][] = $filepath;

file_delete()

Drupal 6.x:

file_delete($file_path);

Drupal 7.x:

file_unmanaged_delete($file_path);

file_save_data()

Drupal 6.x:

if (file_save_data($data, $dest)) {
  $language->javascript = $data_hash;
  $status = ($status == 'deleted') ? 'updated' : 'created';
}

Drupal 7.x:

if (file_unmanaged_save_data($data, $dest)) {
  $language->javascript = $data_hash;
  $status = ($status == 'deleted') ? 'updated' : 'created';
}

Drupal 6	Drupal 7	Notes
file_create_path()	file_prepare_directory(FILE_CREATE_DIRECTORY)
file_check_directory()	file_prepare_directory(FILE_MODIFY_PERMISSIONS)	Probably most of the time people who just want to make sure a directory exists and is writable will use file_prepare_directory(FILE_CREATE_DIRECTORY \| FILE_MODIFY_PERMISSIONS)

Many other functions used before Drupal 7 will no longer be necessary, as, for example, there is normally no need to check where on the filesystem the "public" file directory is -- you use use the streamwrapper notation and everything is done for you.