robtimus/multipart

A library to support creating (streaming) multiparts

Maintainers

Details

github.com/robtimus/php-multipart

Homepage

Source

Issues

Installs: 905 264

Dependents: 6

Suggesters: 0

Security: 0

Stars: 14

Watchers: 1

Forks: 0

Open Issues: 0

pkg:composer/robtimus/multipart

2.0 2026-02-18 18:08 UTC

Requires

  • php: >=8.0

Requires (Dev)

Apache-2.0 e5e0c3369604c9c910dce8b539007ba108a5a17c

  • Rob Spoor <robtimus.woop@users.noreply.github.com>

streamingmultipart

This package is auto-updated.

Last update: 2026-02-18 18:37:28 UTC

README

Packagist Version Build Status Quality Gate Status Coverage

A library to support creating (streaming) multiparts.

Supported multipart types

multipart/form-data

To create a multipart/form-data object, create a MultipartFormData instance, add the form fields, and call finish(). There are two methods for adding form fields:

  • addValue($name, $value, $contentType = '', $contentTransferEncoding = '') adds a string value with the given name.
    • $name and $value are required.
    • $contentType is optional, and will be used for the Content-Type header if it is set. It should be set if the implicit content type should not be text/plain.
    • contentTransferEncoding is optional, and will be used for the Content-Transfer-Encoding header if it is set.
  • addFile($name, $filename, $content, $contentType, $contentLength = -1, $contentTransferEncoding = '') adds a file with the given name.
    • $name, $filename, $content and $contentType are required.
    • $contentLength is optional, and will be ignored if the content is a string.
    • contentTransferEncoding is optional, and will be used for the Content-Transfer-Encoding header if it is set.

An example:

// the multipart object can take an optional pre-existing boundary
$multipart = new MultipartFormData();
$multipart->addValue('name', 'Rob');
$multipart->addFile('file', 'file.txt', 'Hello World', 'text/plain');
// add a content type to a non-file part
$multipart->addValue('json', '{"id": 1}', contentType: 'application/json')
$multipart->finish();

Multiple values or files with the same parameter name

MultipartFormData follows RFC 7578, and not RFC 2388. This means that multiple values or files with the same parameter name are not sent with a multipart/mixed field but instead as separate parts.

PHP servers require multiple values or files to be sent with a name that ends with []. Because MultipartFormData is written to support also other server types that do not have this requirement, it is up to the caller to add these. For instance:

$multipart = new MultipartFormData();
$multipart->addValue('name', 'Rob');
$multipart->addFile('file[]', 'file.txt', 'Hello World', 'text/plain');
$multipart->addFile('file[]', 'file.html', '<html>Hello World</html>', 'text/html');
$multipart->finish();

multipart/related

To create a multipart/related object, create a MultipartRelated instance, add the root part and any inline files, and call finish(). There are two methods for adding parts:

  • addPart($content, $contentType, $contentLength = -1, $contentTransferEncoding = '') adds a part without a content disposition. This should be used for the root part.
    • $content and $contentType are required.
    • $contentLength is optional, and will be ignored if the content is a string.
    • contentTransferEncoding is optional, and will be used for the Content-Transfer-Encoding header if it is set.
  • addInlineFile($contentID, $filename, $content, $contentType, $contentLength = -1, $contentTransferEncoding = '') adds an inline file.
    • $contentID, $filename, $content and $contentType are required.
    • $contentLength is optional, and will be ignored if the content is a string.
    • contentTransferEncoding is optional, and will be used for the Content-Transfer-Encoding header if it is set.

An example:

// the multipart object can take an optional pre-existing boundary
$multipart = new MultipartRelated();
$multipart->addPart(file_get_contents('body.html'), 'text/html');
// the content length is irrelevant because the content is a string
// the content transfer encoding needs to be set to base64
$multipart->addInlineFile('logo', 'logo.png', base64_encode(file_get_contents('logo.png')), 'image/png', contentTransferEncoding: 'base64');
$multipart->finish();

To use this inline file in the HTML body, use cid:logo as the source of an image.

multipart/alternative

To create a multipart/alternative object, create a MultipartAlternative instance, add the alternatives, and call finish(). There are two methods for adding alternatives:

  • addMultipart(Multipart $multipart) adds another multipart as alternative. This is most often used with a multipart/related object.
  • addPart($content, $contentType, $contentLength = -1, $contentTransferEncoding = '') adds a part with the given content.
    • $content and $contentType are required.
    • $contentLength is optional, and will be ignored if the content is a string.
    • contentTransferEncoding is optional, and will be used for the Content-Transfer-Encoding header if it is set.

An example:

// the multipart object can take an optional pre-existing boundary
$multipart = new MultipartAlternative();
// $related is a MultipartRelated instance as created above
$multipart->addPart(file_get_contents('body.txt'), 'text/plain');
$multipart->addMultipart($related);
$multipart->finish();

multipart/mixed

To create a multipart/mixed object, create a MultipartMixed instance, add the parts, and call finish(). There are three methods for adding parts:

  • addMultipart(Multipart $multipart) adds another multipart. This is most often used with a multipart/alternative or multipart/related object.
  • addPart($content, $contentType, $contentLength = -1, $contentTransferEncoding = '') adds a part with the given content. This can be used for the bodies of plain text emails.
    • $content and $contentType are required.
    • $contentLength is optional, and will be ignored if the content is a string.
    • contentTransferEncoding is optional, and will be used for the Content-Transfer-Encoding header if it is set.
  • addAttachment($filename, $content, $contentType, $contentLength = -1, $contentTransferEncoding = '') adds a part with content disposition attachment.
    • $filename, $content and $contentType are required.
    • $contentLength is optional, and will be ignored if the content is a string.
    • contentTransferEncoding is optional, and will be used for the Content-Transfer-Encoding header if it is set.

An example:

// the multipart object can take an optional pre-existing boundary
$multipart = new MultipartMixed();
// $alternative is a MultipartAlternative instance as created above
$multipart->addMultipart($alternative);
// the content length is irrelevant because the content is a string
// the content transfer encoding needs to be set to base64
$multipart->addFile('file.png', base64_encode(file_get_contents('file.png')), 'image/png', contentTransferEncoding: 'base64');
$multipart->finish();

Multipart content

The content of a part or file can be given in one of three ways:

  • As a string. The content length will be ignored.
  • As a resource that can be read using fread. It is up to the caller to close this resource.
  • As a callable that takes a length, and returns a string that is not larger than the given length. If there is nothing more to read it should return the empty string.

Examples, using a MultipartFormData object:

// content length is not necessary
$multipart->addFile('file1', 'file.txt', 'Hello World', 'text/plain');

// make sure to close the resource after the request has been sent
$resource = fopen('file.html');
$multipart->addFile('file.html', $resource, 'text/html', filesize('file.html'));

// assume that class MyResource exists and has a function read($length)
$myResource = new MyResource(...);
$multipart->addFile('file.bin', array($myResource, 'read'), 'application/octet-stream');

cURL support

To send a multipart object with a cURL request, you need to follow some steps:

  • Set the request type using CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST.
  • Set the CURLOPT_UPLOAD option to true.
  • Set the object's curlRead method as the CURLOPT_READFUNCTION.
  • Make sure the Content-Type and Content-Length headers are set. Note that the Content-Length header is optional.

For instance:

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, 'POST');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_UPLOAD, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_READFUNCTION, array($multipart, 'curlRead'));

$headers = ['Content-Type: ' . $multipart->getContentType()];
$contentLength = $multipart->getContentLength();
if ($contentLength >= 0) {
    $headers[] = 'Content-Length: ' .  $contentLength;
}
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);

Non-streaming support

If streaming is not possible (e.g. because a string is required, like in the mail function), you can buffer a multipart object in-memory by calling the buffer method. This method takes an optional buffer size, and returns the buffered contents. The content length will be set accordingly. Note that you should do this before calling read (or curlRead), otherwise the buffered contents may not contain all desired contents (especially if you're using resources or callables).

Multipart.__toString() has been overridden to buffer the multipart object as well, so you can achieve the same by casting a multipart object to string. The difference is that buffer requires the multipart object to be finished.