Installing Laravel: A Step-by-Step Guide

Installing Laravel: A Step-by-Step Guide

Laravel is a popular PHP framework known for its elegant syntax, robust features, and developer-friendly approach. In this article, we'll walk through the process of installing Laravel on your local development environment, so you can start building powerful web applications.

Prerequisites

Before installing Laravel, make sure you have the following prerequisites installed on your system:

1. PHP: Ensure you have PHP installed on your system. Laravel requires PHP version 7.4 or higher.

2. Composer: Composer is a dependency manager for PHP. Make sure you have Composer installed on your system. You can download and install Composer from getcomposer.org.

3. Database: Choose a database system for your Laravel application. Laravel supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, and SQL Server.

Step 1: Install Laravel Installer

The Laravel Installer is a command-line tool that simplifies the process of creating Laravel projects. To install the Laravel Installer globally on your system, open your terminal or command prompt and run the following Composer command:

composer global require laravel/installer

Step 2: Create a New Laravel Project

Once the Laravel Installer is installed, you can create a new Laravel project using the laravel new command. Navigate to the directory where you want to create your project and run the following command:

arduino

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laravel new my-project

Replace my-project with the name of your project. This command will create a new Laravel project in a directory named my-project and install all the necessary dependencies.

Step 3: Serve Your Laravel Application

Once the project is created, navigate to the project directory:

bash

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cd my-project

To serve your Laravel application locally, you can use the built-in PHP development server. Run the following command:

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php artisan serve

This command will start a development server at http://localhost:8000, allowing you to access your Laravel application in your web browser.

Step 4: Set Up Database Configuration

Next, configure your database connection by editing the .env file in the root of your Laravel project. Update the following variables with your database credentials:

makefile

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

Replace your_database, your_username, and your_password with your actual database credentials.

Step 5: Run Migrations (Optional)

If you plan to use a database with your Laravel application, you can run database migrations to create the necessary tables. Run the following command:

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php artisan migrate

This command will execute any outstanding migrations and create the corresponding tables in your database.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You've successfully installed Laravel and created a new Laravel project. You can now start building your web application using Laravel's powerful features and elegant syntax. Explore Laravel's documentation and ecosystem to learn more about its capabilities and best practices for web development. Happy coding!