How to create a temporary access link to files in Laravel

Overview

If you ever wanted to disable the link to a certain resource file after some time, this shot will help you accomplish that quickly.

What is a temporary access file link?

A temporary access file link is a link to a particular resource file with an expiration time.

In this shot, we are going to be using the temporaryUrl() method to achieve this.

$url = Storage::temporaryUrl(
    'file.jpg', now()->addMinutes(5)
);

Syntax

$url = Storage::temporaryUrl();

Parameter

This method accepts two parameters:

1. The path to the resource file.
2. DateTime which specifies when the link should expire.

Example

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Storage;

$url = Storage::temporaryUrl(
    'file.jpg', now()->addMinutes(5)
);

// send link to user here

Code explanation

• In the example above, we call the temporaryUrl() method on the Storage facade and pass the path to the file as file.jpg.
• We add the time to the link expiration in the second parameter as 5 minutes from the time the link was created.