Laravel Remember Uploads Laravel Package

Product Decisions This Supports

• Form UX and conversion: Preserving uploaded files across validation failures and redirects removes a real friction point — users don't re-select files after an error. Highest impact on long, file-heavy forms (KYC/onboarding, applications, support tickets, job postings), especially on mobile.
• Feature scoping: Provides a cheap "sticky uploads" primitive without designing your own temp-file lifecycle, session/blob handling, or cleanup jobs — freeing roadmap capacity for differentiating work rather than upload plumbing.
• Roadmap fit: A useful building block for multi-step wizards, draft-saving, and "resume where you left off" flows. It is a primitive, not a complete upload solution — budget separately for storage, retention, and validation policy.
• Build vs. buy: Lean adopt. The problem is well-bounded and undifferentiated; in-house means owning middleware that correctly handles scalar and array inputs, temp-path configuration, and Laravel upgrade churn.
• Ops and infrastructure: Configurable temporary storage path (new in 1.3.0) lets you align in-flight file placement with constrained disks, ephemeral containers, or data-residency requirements.
• Upgrade policy: The oldFile → rememberedFile deprecation is a soft signal — it permits gradual migration, but new code, docs, and onboarding should adopt rememberedFile to avoid drift.

When to Consider This Package

Consider adoption when:

• You're on Laravel 5.5+ — auto-discovery makes installation near-zero effort, and this release explicitly targets 5.5.
• Your product currently forces re-upload after a validation error or redirect. That is exactly the pain this removes.
• You need multi-file support: 1.3.0 fixes middleware interception of array file inputs, so grouped fields (files[]) are now covered.
• You want a small, single-purpose dependency with a narrow API surface (remember/retrieve) rather than a full media library.
• You have an explicit policy for temporary file retention and cleanup — this package helps you remember files, not govern their lifecycle.

Look elsewhere when:

• You need direct-to-cloud uploads (S3 presigned URLs), chunked/resumable transfers, or CDN delivery — different architecture.
• You need virus scanning, image transformation, metadata extraction, or fine-grained access control — this is a convenience layer, not a media platform.
• You require hard multi-tenant isolation or audited storage paths out of the box.
• You're outside the supported Laravel range, or you can't tolerate a 1.x API that has already renamed a public method.

How to Pitch It (Stakeholders)

Executives: A small, low-cost dependency that removes a known friction point in file-upload forms — users who hit a validation error keep their attachments instead of re-selecting them. That maps to fewer abandoned submissions and fewer support tickets, at negligible build and maintenance cost versus an in-house equivalent. Risk is low: 1.3.0 is additive plus one soft deprecation, with no breaking changes.

Engineering: Upgrade is safe and cheap. 1.3.0 adds Laravel 5.5 auto-discovery (no manual provider registration, faster onboarding), configurable temp storage path (helps containerized and ephemeral environments), and a middleware fix so array file inputs are intercepted — previously multi-file fields could silently miss the feature. The oldFile → rememberedFile change is a deprecation, not a removal, so existing code keeps working during migration. Recommended actions: pin to 1.3.x, use rememberedFile in new code, add a test covering multi-file forms, and set an explicit temp-path and cleanup policy before rollout.