WordPress file "upload" from plugin - php

Question

I'm trying to create plugin importing posts to WordPress. Imported articles (XML) contain "image-name" attribute and this image is already uploaded to the server.
I would like to, however, make WordPress do its "magic" and import the image to the system (create thumbnails, attach it to the post, place it under the wp-uploads directory scheme)... I found function media_handle_upload($file_id, $post_id, $post_data, $overrides) but it requires array $_FILES to be filled with actual upload (and I'm not uploading file - it is already placed on the server) so it's not very useful
Do you have any hint how to proceed?
Thanks

Answer 1

Check the following script to get the idea. (It does work.)
$title = 'Title for the image';
$post_id = YOUR_POST_ID_HERE; // get it from return value of wp_insert_post
$image = $this->cache_image($YOUR_IMAGE_URL);
if($image) {
$attachment = array(
'guid' => $image['full_path'],
'post_type' => 'attachment',
'post_title' => $title,
'post_content' => '',
'post_parent' => $post_id,
'post_status' => 'publish',
'post_mime_type' => $image['type'],
'post_author' => 1
);
// Attach the image to post
$attach_id = wp_insert_attachment( $attachment, $image['full_path'], $post_id );
// update metadata
if ( !is_wp_error($attach_id) )
{
/** Admin Image API for metadata updating */
require_once(ABSPATH . '/wp-admin/includes/image.php');
wp_update_attachment_metadata
( $attach_id, wp_generate_attachment_metadata
( $attach_id, $image['full_path'] ) );
}
}
function cache_image($url) {
$contents = #file_get_contents($url);
$filename = basename($url);
$dir = wp_upload_dir();
$cache_path = $dir['path'];
$cache_url = $dir['url'];
$image['path'] = $cache_path;
$image['url'] = $cache_url;
$new_filename = wp_unique_filename( $cache_path, $filename );
if(is_writable($cache_path) && $contents)
{
file_put_contents($cache_path . '/' . $new_filename, $contents);
$image['type'] = $this->mime_type($cache_path . '/' . $new_filename); //where is function mime_type() ???
$image['filename'] = $new_filename;
$image['full_path'] = $cache_path . '/' . $new_filename;
$image['full_url'] = $cache_url . '/' . $new_filename;
return $image;
}
return false;
}