Installation Guide

Complete guide to install and configure your Laravel application

Server Requirements

Ensure your server meets these minimum requirements:

Minimum Requirements
  • PHP: 8.1 or higher
  • Composer: 2.0 or higher
  • Database: MySQL 8.0+ / PostgreSQL 13+
  • Web Server: Apache 2.4+ / Nginx 1.18+
  • Node.js: 16+ (for asset compilation)
  • NPM: 8+ or Yarn 1.22+

Required PHP Extensions:

  • BCMath, Ctype, cURL, DOM
  • Fileinfo, Filter, Hash
  • JSON, Mbstring, OpenSSL
  • PCRE, PDO, Session
  • Tokenizer, XML, ZIP
Tip: Use Laravel Homestead or Valet for easy local development environment setup.

Local Installation

1
Download and Extract

Download the application package and extract it to your desired location.

# Extract the ZIP file
unzip laravel-app.zip

# Navigate to project directory
cd laravel-app
2
Install PHP Dependencies

Use Composer to install all required PHP packages.

# Install Composer dependencies
composer install

# For production, use:
composer install --optimize-autoloader --no-dev
3
Install Frontend Dependencies

Install JavaScript packages using NPM or Yarn.

# Using NPM
npm install

# Or using Yarn
yarn install
4
Create Environment File

Copy the example environment file and configure it.

# Copy environment file
cp .env.example .env

# Generate application key
php artisan key:generate
5
Configure Environment

Edit the .env file with your local settings.

APP_NAME="Your App"
APP_ENV=local
APP_DEBUG=true
APP_URL=http://localhost

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=your_database
DB_USERNAME=your_username
DB_PASSWORD=your_password
6
Run Migrations

Set up the database structure.

# Run database migrations
php artisan migrate

# Seed the database (optional)
php artisan db:seed

# Or do both at once
php artisan migrate:fresh --seed
7
Compile Assets

Build frontend assets.

# For development
npm run dev

# For production
npm run build

# Watch for changes (development)
npm run watch
8
Start Development Server

Launch the Laravel development server.

# Start the server
php artisan serve

# Custom host and port
php artisan serve --host=0.0.0.0 --port=8080

Visit http://localhost:8000 in your browser!

Environment Configuration

Essential Environment Variables

Variable Description Example
APP_NAME Application name "My Laravel App"
APP_ENV Environment (local/production) local
APP_KEY Application encryption key base64:...
APP_DEBUG Debug mode true (local), false (production)
APP_URL Application URL http://localhost
DB_CONNECTION Database driver mysql / pgsql
MAIL_MAILER Mail driver smtp / log / mailgun

Database Configuration

MySQL Configuration

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=laravel_app
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=secret

PostgreSQL Configuration

DB_CONNECTION=pgsql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=5432
DB_DATABASE=laravel_app
DB_USERNAME=postgres
DB_PASSWORD=secret

Running Migrations

# Run all pending migrations
php artisan migrate

# Rollback the last migration
php artisan migrate:rollback

# Reset and re-run all migrations
php artisan migrate:fresh

# Check migration status
php artisan migrate:status

Production Deployment

Important: Never deploy with APP_DEBUG=true in production!

Optimization Commands

# Optimize configuration loading
php artisan config:cache

# Optimize route loading
php artisan route:cache

# Optimize view loading
php artisan view:cache

# Create cached bootstrap file
php artisan optimize

# Install production dependencies
composer install --optimize-autoloader --no-dev

# Build production assets
npm run build

File Permissions

# Set correct permissions
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data storage bootstrap/cache
sudo chmod -R 775 storage bootstrap/cache

Web Server Configuration

Apache (.htaccess):

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ public/$1 [L]
</IfModule>

Nginx:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name yourdomain.com;
    root /var/www/app/public;

    add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";
    add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff";

    index index.php;

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

    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.1-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $realpath_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }
}

Troubleshooting

If you see permission errors:

sudo chmod -R 775 storage bootstrap/cache
sudo chown -R $USER:www-data storage bootstrap/cache

Regenerate autoload files:

composer dump-autoload
php artisan clear-compiled
php artisan optimize:clear

  1. Verify database credentials in .env
  2. Ensure database server is running
  3. Check database exists: CREATE DATABASE your_database;
  4. Clear config cache: php artisan config:clear

# Clear node_modules and reinstall
rm -rf node_modules package-lock.json
npm install

# Try using specific Node version (via nvm)
nvm use 16
npm run dev