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Laravel

Recipe Features Explained​

Let's breakdown the recipe to deploy a new Laravel site.

See Full Deployment Script 
source: clear
root: public_html/public
features:
  - php latest
  - mysql
nginx:
  fastcgi: "on"
  locations:
    - match: /
      try_files: $uri $uri/ /index.php$is_args$args
    - match: ~ \.[^\/]+(?<!\.php)$
      try_files: $uri =404
commands:
  - composer create-project laravel/laravel .
  - cp .env.example .env
  - sed -ri "s/(# )?DB_CONNECTION=.*/DB_CONNECTION=mysql/g" .env
  - sed -ri "s/(# )?DB_HOST=.*/DB_HOST=localhost/g" .env
  - sed -ri "s/(# )?DB_PORT=.*/DB_PORT=3306/g" .env
  - sed -ri "s/(# )?DB_DATABASE=.*/DB_DATABASE=${DATABASE}/g" .env
  - sed -ri "s/(# )?DB_USERNAME=.*/DB_USERNAME=${USERNAME}/g" .env
  - sed -ri "s/(# )?DB_PASSWORD=.*/DB_PASSWORD=${PASSWORD}/g" .env
  - sed -ri "s/APP_URL=.*/APP_URL=https:\/\/${DOMAIN}/g" .env
  - php artisan migrate:fresh
  - php artisan key:generate
  - php artisan storage:link
  - npm install
  - npm run build
  - rm -f public/hot
  - chmod 0750 -R storage || true 
source: clear
features:
  - php latest
  - mysql
commands:
  - composer create-project laravel/laravel .

This script clears ~/public_html and changing active PHP version to latest installed and create default mysql database and creates a new blank laravel project via composer create-project.

When you upload an existing laravel project, the composer create-project part is omitted.

root: public_html/public
nginx:
  fastcgi: "on"
  locations:
    - match: /
      try_files: $uri $uri/ /index.php$is_args$args
    - match: ~ \.[^\/]+(?<!\.php)$
      try_files: $uri =404

This script declare NGINX Configuration. It means two thing:

  1. root: public_html/public means all static files are put to public folder. This is the recommended way to serve Laravel for reverse proxy like NGINX.

  2. fastcgi: "on" means PHP processing is turned on.

  3. match: / means for all requests, do try_files: $uri $uri/ /index.php$is_args$args. It means try static files first then process root /index.php if nothing found.

  4. match: ~ \.[^\/]+(?<!\.php)$ means for requests only to URLs ending with .php, do try_files: $uri =404. This disables PHP processing for non PHP URLs, known as FastCGI - Safe Config.

commands:
  - cp .env.example .env
  - sed -ri "s/(# )?DB_CONNECTION=.*/DB_CONNECTION=mysql/g" .env
  - sed -ri "s/(# )?DB_HOST=.*/DB_HOST=localhost/g" .env
  - sed -ri "s/(# )?DB_PORT=.*/DB_PORT=3306/g" .env
  - sed -ri "s/(# )?DB_DATABASE=.*/DB_DATABASE=${DATABASE}/g" .env
  - sed -ri "s/(# )?DB_USERNAME=.*/DB_USERNAME=${USERNAME}/g" .env
  - sed -ri "s/(# )?DB_PASSWORD=.*/DB_PASSWORD=${PASSWORD}/g" .env
  - sed -ri "s/APP_URL=.*/APP_URL=https:\/\/${DOMAIN}/g" .env

This script copies the sample .env.example to .env and changing the database connection to MySQL and sets APP_URL to https://$DOMAIN.

commands:
  - php artisan migrate:fresh || true
  - php artisan key:generate
  - php artisan storage:link
  - npm install
  - npm run build
  - rm -f public/hot
  - chmod 0750 -R storage || true

This script executes good practices when initializing a laravel project.

  1. php artisan migrate:fresh Migrates your laravel project. It's fine if it fail (hence || true), you can rerun migration again in SSH if it fails.

  2. php artisan key:generate sets APP_SECRET to .env

  3. php artisan storage:link put storage folder link to public/storage.

  4. npm install & npm run build install and compile frontend tooling, if any.

  5. rm -f public/hot removes hot file that confuses laravel thinking if it still in development mode.

  6. chmod 0750 -R storage || true set 0750 to storage folder, making sure that NGINX can really reads them.

Updating Laravel​

Usually, There are reasons why your changes doesn't reflected in the server:

  • Laravel caches if you have route/config/view changes, which you need to clean by:
php artisan route:clear
php artisan config:clear
php artisan view:clear

Enabling Laravel Queue​

To enable Laravel Queue via cronjob, open SSH and run EDITOR=nano crontab -e:

@hourly cd public_html && php artisan queue:work --once &>> ./logs/cron.log

Note that this php refers to /bin/php, which always uses latest version. If you need other version, try use such as php83.

To make it always standby, consider implementing timeout:

@hourly cd public_html && timeout 1h php artisan queue:work &>> ./logs/cron.log
danger

Do not omit --once or timeout! In doing so you're risking the whole server to get OOM.

Enable Laravel UI​


commands:
- composer require laravel/ui
- php artisan ui bootstrap --auth
- npm install
- npm run build

This enables Laravel UI with Bootstrap and authentication.

Fix 404 NGINX Page when opening page other than index​

You may have default NGINX settings applied. You need to fix it to suit laravel need.

root: public_html/public
nginx:
  fastcgi: "on"
  locations:
    - match: /
      try_files: $uri $uri/ /index.php$is_args$args
    - match: ~ \.[^\/]+(?<!\.php)$
      try_files: $uri =404

Fix 404 NGINX Page when opening dynamic media​

By default the laravel template uses FastCGI Safe routing, which refuses PHP processing for any URLs with dot. To allow it, use FastCGI normal routing.

root: public_html/public
nginx:
  fastcgi: "on"
  locations:
    - match: /
      try_files: $uri $uri/ /index.php$is_args$args

Run Development Mode In Server​

You need to open VS Code and run php artisan serve and yarn dev. Before that, make sure to unset APP_URL from .env. VS Code will set up a local port forwarding so localhost:8000 can be opened directly in your browser.