Step- by- Step companion to Planting a Laravel Project

Step- by- Step companion to Planting a Laravel Project:

Step 1: Prepare Your Environment

1. Server Selection: Choose a hosting environment like a VPS, shared hosting, or cloud platforms like AWS, DigitalOcean, or Heroku.
2. Install PHP & Composer:
   • Ensure the server supports the required PHP version for Laravel.Install Composer (a dependency manager for PHP).

sudo apt update
sudo apt install php-cli unzip curl
curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer

1. Install Database: Set up a database like MySQL, PostgreSQL, or SQLite.

Step 2: Upload Your Laravel Project

1. Compress your project files (excluding node_modules and vendor directories) into a .zip file.
2. Upload the file to your server using tools like FileZilla, cPanel, or the command line (scp).
3. Extract the files in the server directory (e.g., /var/www/html/project_name).

unzip project.zip -d /var/www/html/project_name

Step 3: Configure the Environment

1. Set File Permissions:
   • Ensure the storage and bootstrap/cache directories are writable

chmod -R 775 storage bootstrap/cache

Set the Environment File:

• Update .env with the correct database and application configurations:

APP_NAME=YourAppName
APP_ENV=production
APP_KEY=base64:generated_key
APP_DEBUG=false
APP_URL=http://yourdomain.com

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=your_database_name
DB_USERNAME=your_db_user
DB_PASSWORD=your_db_password

Step 4: Install Dependencies

Run Composer to install dependencies on the server:

composer install --optimize-autoloader --no-dev

Step 5: Generate the Application Key

Run the following command to generate a key for your Laravel application:

php artisan key:generate

Step 6: Migrate the Database

Run database migrations to create tables in your database:

php artisan migrate --force

Step 7: Configure Apache/Nginx

1. Set Up Virtual Host (Apache): Create a virtual host configuration file:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/yourdomain.com.conf

Add the following configuration:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName yourdomain.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/project_name/public
    <Directory /var/www/html/project_name>
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Enable the site and restart Apache:

sudo a2ensite yourdomain.com.conf
sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo systemctl restart apache2

Set Up Server Block (Nginx): Create a configuration file:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/yourdomain.com

Add the following:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name yourdomain.com;

    root /var/www/html/project_name/public;
    index index.php index.html;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }

    location ~ /\.ht {
        deny all;
    }
}

Enable the configuration and restart Nginx:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/yourdomain.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo systemctl restart nginx

Step 8: Optimize Your Application

1. Cache the configuration:bashCopy code

php artisan config:cache
php artisan route:cache
php artisan view:cache

Clear unnecessary caches:

php artisan cache:clear

Step 9: Test Your Application

Visit your domain (e.g., http://yourdomain.com) to ensure the application works. Check logs if you encounter issues:

tail -f storage/logs/laravel.log

Step 10: Secure Your Application

1. Enable SSL: Use Let’s Encrypt or another SSL provider to secure your site with HTTPS.
2. Harden Permissions: Ensure the .env file and other sensitive files are not accessible publicly.
3. Regular Updates: Keep Laravel and server packages updated.