Using "media_handle_sideload" to upload images programmatically does not upload image to Media Library

Question

I am using this code to try to upload images located in my server to Media Library of my wordpress installation.

<?php 
    include("../../../wp-blog-header.php");
    include("../../../wp-admin/includes/file.php");
    include("../../../wp-admin/includes/media.php");

    $id = 0;
    $image = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . "/image01.jpg";
    $array = array( //array to mimic $_FILES
            'name' => basename($image), //isolates and outputs the file name from its absolute path
            'type' => 'image/jpeg', //yes, thats sloppy, see my text further down on this topic
            'tmp_name' => $image, //this field passes the actual path to the image
            'error' => 0, //normally, this is used to store an error, should the upload fail. but since this isnt actually an instance of $_FILES we can default it to zero here
            'size' => filesize($image) //returns image filesize in bytes
        );

    media_handle_sideload($array, $id); //the actual image processing, that is, move to upload directory, generate thumbnails and image sizes and writing into the database happens here
?>

I can see that this code takes my image called "image01.jpg" located in that path and then it put the image to /wp-contents/uploads/. However when I go to the admin panel in wordpress to see the image in the Media Library I cannot see the image. Also there is not any row in the wp_posts of this image.

UPDATE:

I used this time this code:

$result = media_handle_sideload($array, $id);
echo "Finish media handle sideload<br>";

if ( ! is_wp_error( $result ) ) {
    echo "Result<br>";
    print_r($result);
} else {
    echo "Error<br>";
    print_r($results);
}
echo "Finish script<br>";

Nothing is shown is the execution. I can't see the msg "Finish media handle sideload". However the file is moved from path specified in "$image" to "wp-content/uploads". Note that the files is moved, not copied, so if I execute the script without copy again the image to the source (path of $image), I can see some warnings about filesize function likes this:

Warning: filesize(): stat failed for C:/Users/dlopez/Documents/Development/web-folders/image01.jpg in C:\Users\dlopez\Documents\Development\web-folders\wp_test\wp-content\plugins\pods-csv-importer\upload.php on line 16

Answer 1

Your failing and getting a WP_Error object returned before the function runs wp_insert_attachment().

You should always include a check for is_wp_error( $thing ) when calling a function that returns WP_Errors.

$result = media_handle_sideload($array, $id);

if ( ! is_wp_error( $result ) ) {
   return $result;
} else {
   var_dump( $result->get_error_messages );
 }

Your problem will be listed in the output of error messages

Answer 2

<?php 
    // Need to require these files
    if ( !function_exists('media_handle_upload') ) {
        require_once(ABSPATH . "wp-admin" . '/includes/image.php');
        require_once(ABSPATH . "wp-admin" . '/includes/file.php');
        require_once(ABSPATH . "wp-admin" . '/includes/media.php');
    }

    $url = "https://www.w3schools.com/css/img_fjords.jpg";
    $tmp = download_url( $url );
    if( is_wp_error( $tmp ) ){
        // download failed, handle error
    }
    $post_id = 0; // set 0 for no parent post id or simple attachment otherwise pass post id for include in post 
    $desc = "The WordPress Logo";
    $file_array = array();

    // Set variables for storage
    // fix file filename for query strings
    preg_match('/[^\?]+\.(jpg|jpe|jpeg|gif|png)/i', $url, $matches);
    $file_array['name'] = basename($matches[0]);
    $file_array['tmp_name'] = $tmp;

    // If error storing temporarily, unlink
    if ( is_wp_error( $tmp ) ) {
        @unlink($file_array['tmp_name']);
        $file_array['tmp_name'] = '';
    }

    // do the validation and storage stuff
    $id = media_handle_sideload( $file_array, $post_id, $desc );

    // If error storing permanently, unlink
    if ( is_wp_error($id) ) {
        @unlink($file_array['tmp_name']);
        return $id;
    }

    $src = wp_get_attachment_url( $id );
?>

apply this code and pass your file URL. That is works for me.

for more details please check WordPress function reference for media_handle_sideload.

Answer 3

You shouldn't assign a string valus to image. According to the example in this page, at first you must download files to temporary directory using download_url() and assign object returned by this function to $image:

$image = download_url("http://yoursite.com/image01.jpg");

Don't forget to unlink() the $image at the end of function.

Answer 4

Does the form that the file is coming from use:

enctype="multipart/form-data"

e.g.,

<form method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">