Saving files locally with Laravel - php

Question

I'm saving files locally in Laravel, however I'm having issues getting the right URL and accessing the files.
I've setup a symlink with Artisan:
php artisan storage:link
When saving, I add public/ to the name, so the files are placed in the /storage/app/public/ directory, which works.
if ($request->hasFile('files')) {
$files = array();
foreach ($request->file('files') as $file) {
if ($file->isValid()) {
$name = time() . str_random(5) . '.' . $file->getClientOriginalExtension();
Storage::disk('public')->put($name, $file);
$files[] = $name;
}
}
if (count($files) > 0) {
$response->assets = json_encode($files);
}
}
The name is stored in the database
["1524042807kdvws.pdf"]
Then the assets are returned as part of a JSON object via my API for Vue
if (count($response->assets) > 0) {
$assets = array();
foreach (json_decode($response->assets, true) as $asset) {
$assets[] = asset($asset);
}
$responses[$key]->assets = $assets;
}
Which returns http://127.0.0.1:8000/1524042807kdvws.pdf but that 404s. I've gotten myself a little confused I think, so any pointers or help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

So I found my answer on another post
I needed to wrap the $file in file_get_contents();
Storage::disk('public')->put($name, $file);
and instead of asset() I used:
Storage::disk('public')->url($asset['file']);

Answer 2

Check this docs. https://laravel.com/docs/5.5/filesystem#the-public-disk
As it shows there instead of
$name = 'public/' . time() . str_random(5) . '.' . $file->getClientOriginalExtension();
you can just have
$name = 'time() . str_random(5) . '.' . $file->getClientOriginalExtension();
Storage::disk("public")->put($name, $file); // assuming you have the public disk that comes by default
Then when you want to get an url, you can use the asset function
asset('storage/foo.txt');