copy-files.rst

Copying & Referencing Images

Need to reference a static file - like the path to an image for an img tag? That can be tricky if you store your assets outside of the public document root. Fortunately, depending on your situation, there is a solution!

Referencing Images from Inside a Webpacked JavaScript File

To reference an image tag from inside a JavaScript file, require the file:

// assets/app.js

// returns the final, public path to this file
// path is relative to this file - e.g. assets/images/logo.png
import logoPath from '../images/logo.png';

let html = `<img src="${logoPath}" alt="ACME logo">`;

When you require (or import) an image file, Webpack copies it into your output directory and returns the final, public path to that file.

Referencing Image files from a Template

To reference an image file from outside of a JavaScript file that's processed by Webpack - like a template - you can use the copyFiles() method to copy those files into your final output directory.

  // webpack.config.js

  Encore
      // ...
      .setOutputPath('public/build/')

+     .copyFiles({
+         from: './assets/images',
+
+         // optional target path, relative to the output dir
+         //to: 'images/[path][name].[ext]',
+
+         // if versioning is enabled, add the file hash too
+         //to: 'images/[path][name].[hash:8].[ext]',
+
+         // only copy files matching this pattern
+         //pattern: /\.(png|jpg|jpeg)$/
+     })

This will copy all files from assets/images into public/build (the output path). If you have :doc:`versioning enabled <versioning>`, the copied files will include a hash based on their content.

To render inside Twig, use the asset() function:

{# assets/images/logo.png was copied to public/build/logo.png #}
<img src="{{ asset('build/logo.png') }}" alt="ACME logo">

{# assets/images/subdir/logo.png was copied to public/build/subdir/logo.png #}
<img src="{{ asset('build/subdir/logo.png') }}" alt="ACME logo">

Make sure you've enabled the :ref:`json_manifest_path <load-manifest-files>` option, which tells the asset() function to read the final paths from the manifest.json file. If you're not sure what path argument to pass to the asset() function, find the file in manifest.json and use the key as the argument.