Wordpress attachment upload via PHP

Question

Im trying to upload an external image and set it as a featured image via php

The code im using is as follows,

        $photo = new WP_Http();
        $photo = $photo->request( $article->largeURL );
        $attachment = wp_upload_bits( $photo_name . '.jpg', null, $photo['body'], date("Y-m", strtotime( $photo['headers']['last-modified'] ) ) );

        $filetype = wp_check_filetype( basename( $attachment['file'] ), null );

        $postinfo = array(
            'post_mime_type'    => $filetype['type'],
            'post_title'        => $article->heading . ' ',
            'post_content'  => '',
            'post_status'   => 'inherit',
        );
        $filename = $attachment['file'];
        $attach_id = wp_insert_attachment( $postinfo, $filename, $newId );
        if( !function_exists( 'wp_generate_attachment_data' ) )
            require_once(ABSPATH . "wp-admin" . '/includes/image.php');
        $attach_data = wp_generate_attachment_metadata( $attach_id, $filename );
        wp_update_attachment_metadata( $attach_id,  $attach_data );
        set_post_thumbnail($newId,$attach_id)

It uploads the image to the media but doesn't set as the featured image, however i think the problem is in the image upload, the attachment screen in the 'media' looks as follow

http://cl.ly/image/0z2k1b1d0m1J

Which seems to suggest some information hasnt come through correctly as theres no thumbnail, name or type.

All help much appreciated! Thanks

Answer 1

I would comment, but I'm not allowed yet.

1) Are you doing this from the back-end or front-end? You may need a nonce key.
2) On set_post_thumbnail, does $newId = $post->ID? That may be why it's not attaching as the featured image.
3) Your filename is not preserving the extension/$photo_name is not defined in the code. You may be better off with wp_handle_upload.