PhxMediaLibrary

A robust, Ecto-backed media management library for Elixir and Phoenix, inspired by Spatie's Laravel Media Library.

Associate files with any Ecto schema using a fluent, composable API — with collections, image conversions, LiveView components, and multiple storage backends out of the box.

Quick Look

defmodule MyApp.Post do
  use Ecto.Schema
  use PhxMediaLibrary.HasMedia

  schema "posts" do
    field :title, :string

    has_media()          # all media for this model
    has_media(:images)   # scoped to "images" collection
    has_media(:avatar)   # scoped to "avatar" collection

    timestamps()
  end

  media_collections do
    collection :images, max_files: 20, max_size: 10_000_000
    collection :documents, accepts: ~w(application/pdf text/plain)
    collection :avatar, single_file: true, fallback_url: "/images/default.png"
  end

  media_conversions do
    convert :thumb, width: 150, height: 150, fit: :cover
    convert :preview, width: 800, quality: 85
    convert :banner, width: 1200, height: 400, fit: :crop, collections: [:images]
  end
end

# Add media with a fluent pipeline
{:ok, media} =
  post
  |> PhxMediaLibrary.add("/path/to/photo.jpg")
  |> PhxMediaLibrary.using_filename("hero.jpg")
  |> PhxMediaLibrary.with_custom_properties(%{"alt" => "Hero image"})
  |> PhxMediaLibrary.to_collection(:images)

# Retrieve
PhxMediaLibrary.get_media(post, :images)
PhxMediaLibrary.get_first_media_url(post, :images, :thumb)

# Delete
PhxMediaLibrary.delete(media)
{:ok, count} = PhxMediaLibrary.clear_collection(post, :images)

LiveView — One-Line Uploads

defmodule MyAppWeb.PostLive.Edit do
  use MyAppWeb, :live_view
  use PhxMediaLibrary.LiveUpload

  def mount(%{"id" => id}, _session, socket) do
    post = Posts.get_post!(id)

    {:ok,
     socket
     |> assign(:post, post)
     |> allow_media_upload(:images, model: post, collection: :images)
     |> stream_existing_media(:media, post, :images)}
  end

  def handle_event("save_media", _params, socket) do
    {:ok, media_items} = consume_media(socket, :images, socket.assigns.post, :images)
    {:noreply, stream_media_items(socket, :media, media_items)}
  end
end

<form phx-change="validate" phx-submit="save_media">
  <.media_upload upload={@uploads.images} id="post-images" />
  <button type="submit">Upload</button>
</form>

<.media_gallery media={@streams.media} id="gallery">
  <:item :let={{_id, media}}>
    <.media_img media={media} conversion={:thumb} class="rounded-lg" />
  </:item>
</.media_gallery>

Features

Installation

def deps do
  [
    {:phx_media_library, "~> 0.6.0"},

    # Optional: Image processing (requires libvips)
    {:image, "~> 0.54"},

    # Optional: S3 storage
    {:ex_aws, "~> 2.5"},
    {:ex_aws_s3, "~> 2.5"},
    {:sweet_xml, "~> 0.7"},

    # Optional: Async processing with Oban
    {:oban, "~> 2.18"}
  ]
end

# config/config.exs
config :phx_media_library,
  repo: MyApp.Repo,
  default_disk: :local,
  disks: [
    local: [
      adapter: PhxMediaLibrary.Storage.Disk,
      root: "priv/static/uploads",
      base_url: "/uploads"
    ]
  ]

mix phx_media_library.install
mix ecto.migrate

Note: The :image dependency is optional. PhxMediaLibrary works for file storage without it. Image conversions require :image to be installed.

Guides

Detailed documentation is organized into focused guides:

Full API documentation is available on HexDocs.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

1. Fork it
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/my-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add my feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/my-feature)
5. Create a Pull Request

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License — see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

Inspired by Spatie's Laravel Media Library, bringing its excellent developer experience to the Elixir ecosystem.