[5.x]: Asset not accessible from defined URL when the URL is different from filepath

[foxtrotcz]

What happened?

Description

I cant access assets if I set Base URL of filesystem different than actual filepath or not in public web folder.

Example1

1. Lets say I have web www.example.com and alias @myweb.
2. Create new Local Folder filesystem with settings:
   Base URL: @myweb/test1
   Base Path: @webroot/test2
   Enable: Files in this filesystem have public URLs
3. Create simple Volume using this filesystem. No need to add subpath.
4. Upload example image.png to this volume.
5. Try accessing this example image.

Expected behavior: Image accessed on www.example.com/test1/image.png

Actual behavior: Image is not accessible on above URL (shows 404) but instead on www.example.com/test2/image.png

Example2

1. Same
2. Create new Local Folder filesystem with settings:
   Base URL: @myweb/test1
   Base Path: @storage/test2
3. Same
4. Same
5. Same

Expected behavior: Image accessed on www.example.com/test1/image.png

Actual behavior: Image is not accessible, shows 404.

Craft CMS version

5.10.3

PHP version

No response

Operating system and version

No response

Database type and version

No response

Image driver and version

No response

Installed plugins and versions

[linear-code]

CMS-2127

[brandonkelly]

Hi, thanks for reporting that. But it’s not Craft’s responsibility to serve your assets; it’s your web server’s.

If you want your volume’s base URL to be a folder that doesn’t exist in the web root, you will need to configure your web server to resolve those requests to the actual file locations.

For example, you could do that with nginx like so:

location /test1/ {
    alias /var/www/storage/test2/;
}

[foxtrotcz]

Thanks for explanation.
When I saw both Base URL and Base Path in Craft filesystem setting I thought that means I can set any local path and any URL and Craft will then map the Base URL on the Base Path. And I thought Files in this filesystem have public URLs switch enables the serving assets.
But its all actually just informing Craft about where the assets are and what URLs they have.

[brandonkelly]

That’s true for the Base Path – Craft will create whatever folder you set that to and start saving files there. But the URL needs to be something the web server can resolve to those files.