simple-media-collections.md

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Simple media collections	1

If you have different types of files that you want to associate, you can put them in their own collection.

$yourModel = YourModel::find(1);
$yourModel->addMedia($pathToImage)->toMediaCollection('images');
$yourModel->addMedia($pathToAnotherImage)->toMediaCollection('images');
$yourModel->addMedia($pathToPdfFile)->toMediaCollection('downloads');
$yourModel->addMedia($pathToAnExcelFile)->toMediaCollection('downloads');

All media in a specific collection can be retrieved like this:

// will return media instances for all files in the images collection
$yourModel->getMedia('images');

// will returns media instance for all files in the downloads collection
$yourModel->getMedia('downloads');

A collection can have any name you want. If you don't specify a name, the file will be added to a collection named default.

You can clear out a specific collection by passing the name to clearMediaCollection:

$yourModel->clearMediaCollection('images');

Also, there is a clearMediaCollectionExcept method which can be useful if you want to remove only few or some selected media in a collection. It accepts the collection name as the first argument and the media instance or collection of media instances which should not be removed as the second argument:

$yourModel->clearMediaCollectionExcept('images', $yourModel->getFirstMedia()); // This will remove all associated media in the 'images' collection except the first media

Are you a visual learner?

Here's a video that shows how to work with collections.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/H23EGsik7xE" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Want to see more videos like this? Check out our free video course on how to use Laravel Media Library.