Uploading files through the API

Question

I see an older thread on the forum about potential improvements to the API to allow file uploads, but I'm not sure that ever happened. Has anyone ever uploaded files in CiviCRM using the API?

I see in the API Explorer that there is a File > Create with a parameter for File Contents but I'm not sure if you feed in the MIME contents, a URL, or...?

Answer 1

Yes, it did happen and it's called the "attachment" api. You can look up the docs for it in the api explorer:

Answer 2

Example to upload a image in custom field. Important, if you want to upload in custom field, you can't fill the entity table.

The field need to be of type file.

$fields = [
  'key' =>  $key,
  'api_key' => $api_key,
  'entity' => 'Attachment',
  'action' => 'create',
  'mime_type' => 'image/jpeg',
  'name' => 'test.jpg',
  'content' => file_get_contents('test.jpg'),
  'entity_id' => 2, // Contact id, contribution_id,....
  'field_name' => 'custom_247' // Custom field type file
];