How to unlink (delete) an image in CodeIgniter

Question

I try to unlink an image in CodeIgniter, but the unlink function shows:

notice Undefined index: userfile

Here is my code

<?php
    function get_from_post(){
        $data['logo_name']  = $this->input->post('logo_name',TRUE);
        $data['logo_thumb'] = $_FILES['userfile']['name'];
        return $data;
    }

    function deleteconf($data){
        $data= $this->get_from_post();
        $update_id=$this->uri->segment(3);

        @unlink(base_url.'image/logo_thumb'.$logo_thumb);

        $query= $this->_delete($update_id);     
    }
?>

Answer 1

the unlink function shows notice Undefined index: userfile

The upload form, using multipart/form-data

Make sure you've use enctype="multipart/form-data" attribute/value for your upload form.

<form action="" method="post" accept-charset="utf-8" enctype="multipart/form-data">

From the MDN:

enctype
multipart/form-data: Use this value if you are using an <input> element with the type attribute set to "file".

If you're going to use CodeIgniter form helper, you could use form_open_multipart() function:

This function is absolutely identical to the form_open() tag above except that it adds a multipart attribute, which is necessary if you would like to use the form to upload files with.

Deleting files, File path vs URL address

PHP unlink() function accepts the Path of the file as the first argument. Not the URL Address.

The base_url() helper function returns the URL address of the site, which you've set in the config.php file.

You'll have to use the path of the file on your server, as follows:

unlink('/path/to/image/image_name.jpg'); // This is an absolute path to the file

You could use an Absolute or Relative path, but note that the relative path is relative to the index.php file. i.e. If the image/ folder is placed beside index.php file, you should use image/image_name.jpg as the file path:

unlink('image/image_name.jpg'); // This is a relative path to the file

Answer 2

If you want to upload a photo for user profile and also at the time the old user photo should be deleted by using unlink method in codeignitor

$query = $this->db->where('profile_id',$profile_id)->get('users')->row();
$result = $query->photo;
$result = http://localhost/abc/user_photo/FE12563.jpg

if ($result) {
        $dd = substr($result, strlen(base_url()));
        unlink($dd);
        return  $this->db->set('photo',$photo)->where('profile_id',$profile_id)->update('users');
}