The documentation doesn't have any details about how the HTML array feature formats the $_FILES array.
Example $_FILES array:
For single file -
Array
(
[document] => Array
(
[name] => sample-file.doc
[type] => application/msword
[tmp_name] => /tmp/path/phpVGCDAJ
[error] => 0
[size] => 0
)
)
Multi-files with HTML array feature -
Array
(
[documents] => Array
(
[name] => Array
(
[0] => sample-file.doc
[1] => sample-file.doc
)
[type] => Array
(
[0] => application/msword
[1] => application/msword
)
[tmp_name] => Array
(
[0] => /tmp/path/phpVGCDAJ
[1] => /tmp/path/phpVGCDAJ
)
[error] => Array
(
[0] => 0
[1] => 0
)
[size] => Array
(
[0] => 0
[1] => 0
)
)
)
The problem occurs when you have a form that uses both single file and HTML array feature. The array isn't normalized and tends to make coding for it really sloppy. I have included a nice method to normalize the $_FILES array.
<?php
function normalize_files_array($files = []) {
$normalized_array = [];
foreach($files as $index => $file) {
if (!is_array($file['name'])) {
$normalized_array[$index][] = $file;
continue;
}
foreach($file['name'] as $idx => $name) {
$normalized_array[$index][$idx] = [
'name' => $name,
'type' => $file['type'][$idx],
'tmp_name' => $file['tmp_name'][$idx],
'error' => $file['error'][$idx],
'size' => $file['size'][$idx]
];
}
}
return $normalized_array;
}
?>
The following is the output from the above method.
Array
(
[document] => Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[name] => sample-file.doc
[type] => application/msword
[tmp_name] => /tmp/path/phpVGCDAJ
[error] => 0
[size] => 0
)
)
[documents] => Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[name] => sample-file.doc
[type] => application/msword
[tmp_name] => /tmp/path/phpVGCDAJ
[error] => 0
[size] => 0
)
[1] => Array
(
[name] => sample-file.doc
[type] => application/msword
[tmp_name] => /tmp/path/phpVGCDAJ
[error] => 0
[size] => 0
)
)
)
