file_exists returning false in all cases - php

Question

I'm working on Wordpress at the moment and as simple as it's sounds i'm trying to check if the image is there in the directory if not then it will show a standard no-image.
My problem is that the file_exists is returning false although the url is correct inside it, and it's accessible via browser so it's not a permission issue, and maybe i'm doing it wrong, here's the code;
$img = 'no_img.jpg';
if($val->has_prop('user_image')){
$img_tmp = $val->get( 'user_image' );
if(file_exists($upload_dir['baseurl'].'/users/'.$img_tmp)){
$img = $val->get( 'user_image' );
}
}
if i do var_dump($upload_dir['baseurl'].'/users/'.$img_tmp); it will show the exact direct URL to the file, and it's correct one, but when it enters the file_exists it returns $img = 'no_img.jpg' although the file exists in the directory.... What am i doing wrong??
I tried also to add clearstatcache(); before the file_exists but didn't work also.
Any ideas?

Answer 1

Try to use:
if( getimagesize($upload_dir['baseurl'].'/users/'.$img_tmp) !== false ){
$img = $val->get( 'user_image' );
}
else {
$img = $val->get( 'no_image' );
}
Also refer to the doc getimagesize

Answer 2

you can use
$fullPath=$upload_dir['baseurl'].'/users/'.$img_tmp;
if(#fopen($fullPath,"r")){
........
}

Answer 3

Or as mentioned in comments, try sniff instead :
if (#file_get_contents($upload_dir['baseurl'].'/users/'.$img_tmp, null, null, 0, 1)) {
//ok
}

Answer 4

You need to use $upload_dir['basedir'] instead of baseurl if you used $upload_dir = wp_upload_dir(); to determine the upload path of your WP installation.
or you can use file_get_contents, cURL, or fopen to sniff if image exists for the url.