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Laravel Application Development Cookbook

Chapter 1. Setting Up and Installing Laravel

In this chapter, we will cover:

Installing Laravel as a git submodule
Setting up a virtual host and development environment in Apache
Creating "clean" URLs
Configuring Laravel
Using Laravel with Sublime Text 2
Setting up your IDE to autocomplete Laravel's namespaces
Using Autoloader to map a class name to its file
Creating advanced Autoloaders with namespaces and directories

Installing Laravel as a git submodule

There may be a time when we want to have our Laravel installation separate from the rest of our public files. In this case, installing Laravel as a git submodule would be a solution. This will allow us to update our Laravel files through git without touching our application code.

Getting ready

To get started, we should have our development server running as well as have git installed. In the server's web directory, create a myapp directory to hold our files. Installation will all be done in the command line.

How to do it...

To complete this recipe, follow these steps:

In your terminal or command line, navigate to the root of myapp. The first step is to initialize git and download our project files:
```
$ git init
$ git clone git@github.com:laravel/laravel.git
```
Since all we need is the public directory, move to /laravel and delete everything else:
```
$ cd laravel
$ rm –r app bootstrap vendor
```

Then, move back to the root directory, create a framework directory, and add Laravel as a submodule:

$ cd ..
$ mkdir framework
$ cd framework
$ git init
$ git submodule add https://github.com/laravel/laravel.git

Now we need to run Composer to install the framework:
```
php composer.phar install
```
Tip
More information about installing Composer can be found at http://getcomposer.org/doc/00-intro.md. The rest of the book will assume we're using composer.phar, but we could also add it globally and simply call it by typing composer.

Now, open /laravel/public/index.php and find the following lines:

require __DIR__.'/../bootstrap/autoload.php';
$app = require_once __DIR__.'/../bootstrap/start.php';

Change the preceding lines to:

require __DIR__.'/../../framework/laravel/bootstrap/autoload.php';
$app = require_once __DIR__.'/../../framework/laravel/bootstrap/start.php';

How it works...

For many, simply running git clone would be enough to get their project going. However, since we want to have our framework act as a submodule, we need to separate those files from our project.

First, we download the files from GitHub, and since we don't need any of the framework files, we can delete everything but our public folder. Then, we create our submodule in the framework directory and download everything there. When that's complete, we run composer install to get all our vendor packages installed.

To get the framework connected to our application, we modify /laravel/public/index.php and change the require paths to our framework directory. That will let our application know exactly where the framework files are located.

There's more...

One alternative solution is to move the public directory to our server's root. Then, while updating our index.php file, we'll use __DIR__ . '/../framework/laravel/bootstrap' to include everything correctly.

Setting up a virtual host and development environment in Apache

When developing our Laravel app, we'll need a web server to run everything. In PHP 5.4 and up, we can use the built-in web server, but if we need some more functionality, we'll need a full web stack. In this recipe, we'll be using an Apache server on Windows, but any OS with Apache will be similar.

Getting ready

This recipe requires a recent version of WAMP server, available at http://wampserver.com, though the basic principle applies to any Apache configuration on Windows.

How to do it...

To complete this recipe, follow these steps:

Open the WAMP Apache httpd.conf file. It is often located in C:/wamp/bin/apache/Apach2.#.#/conf.
Locate the line #Include conf/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf and remove the first #.

Move to the extra directory, open the httpd-vhosts.conf file, and add the following code:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin {your@email.com}
    DocumentRoot "C:/path/to/myapp/public"
    ServerName myapp.dev
    <Directory "C:/path/to/myapp/public">
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride all
        # onlineoffline tag - don't remove
        Order Deny,Allow
        Deny from all
        Allow from 127.0.0.1
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Restart the Apache service.
Open the Windows hosts file, often in C:/Windows/System32/drivers/etc, and open the file hosts in a text editor.
At the bottom of the file, add the line 127.0.0.1 myapp.dev.

How it works...

First, in the Apache config file httpd.conf, we uncomment the line to allow the file to include the vhosts configuration files. You can include the code directly in the httpd.conf file, but this method keeps things more organized.

In the httpd-vhosts.conf file, we add our VirtualHost code. DocumentRoot tells the server where the files are located and ServerName is the base URL that the server will look for. Since we only want to use this for our local development, we make sure to only allow access to the localhost with the IP 127.0.0.1.

In the hosts file, we need to tell Windows which IP to use for the myapp.dev URL. After restarting Apache and our browser, we should be able to go to http://myapp.dev and view our application.

There's more...

While this recipe is specific to Windows and WAMP, the same idea can be applied to most Apache installations. The only difference will be the location of the httpd.conf file (in Linux Ubuntu, it's in /etc/apache2) and the path to the public directory for DocumentRoot (in Ubuntu, it might be something like /var/www/myapp/public). The hosts file for Linux and Mac OS X will be located in /etc/hosts.

Configuring Laravel

After installing Laravel, it's pretty much ready to go without much need for configuration. However, there are a few settings we want to make sure to update.

Getting ready

For this recipe, we need a regular installation of Laravel.

How to do it...

To complete this recipe, follow these steps:

Open /app/config/app.php and update these lines:

'url' => 'http://localhost/,
'locale' => 'en',
'key' => 'Seriously-ChooseANewKey',

Open app/config/database.php and choose your preferred database:

'default' => 'mysql',
'connections' => array(
    'mysql' => array(
        'driver'    => 'mysql',
        'host'      => 'localhost',
        'database'  => 'database',
        'username'  => 'root',
        'password'  => '',
        'charset'   => 'utf8',
        'collation' => 'utf8_unicode_ci',
        'prefix'    => '',
        ),
    ),

In the command line, go to the root of the app and make sure the storage folder is writable:
```
chmod –R 777 app/storage
```

How it works...

Most of the configuration will happen in the /app/config/app.php file. While setting the URL isn't required, and Laravel does a great job figuring it out without setting it, it's always good to remove any work from the framework that we can. Next, we set our location. If we choose to provide localization in our app, this setting will be our default. Then, we set our application key, since it's best to not keep the default.

Next, we set which database driver we'll be using. Laravel comes with four drivers out of the box: mysql, sqlite, sqlsrv (MS SQL Server), and pgsql (Postgres).

Finally, our app/storage directory will be used for keeping any temporary data, such as sessions or cache, if we choose. To allow this, we need to make sure the app can write to the directory.

There's more...

For an easy way to create a secure application key, remove the default key and leave it empty. Then, in your command line, navigate to your application root directory and type:

php artisan key:generate

That will create a unique and secure key and automatically save it in your configuration file.

Creating advanced Autoloaders with namespaces and directories

If we want to be sure that our custom classes don't conflict with any other class in our app, we will need to add them to a namespace. Using the PSR-0 standard and Composer, we can easily autoload these classes into Laravel.

Getting ready

For this recipe, we need to set up a standard Laravel installation.

How to do it...

To complete this recipe, follow these steps:

Inside the /app directory, create a new directory named custom, and inside of custom, create a directory named Custom, and in Custom, create a directory named Shapes.

Inside the /app/custom/Custom/Shapes directory, create a file named MyShapes.php and add this code:

<?php namespace Custom\Shapes;

class MyShapes {
    public function triangle() 
    {
        return 'I am a triangle';
    }
}

In the root of the application, open the composer.json file and locate the autoload section. Update it so it looks like this:

"autoload": {
    "classmap": [
    "app/commands",
        "app/controllers",
        "app/models",
        "app/database/migrations",
        "app/database/seeds",
        "app/tests/TestCase.php",
    ],
    "psr-0": {
        "Custom": "app/custom"
    }
}

Open the command line and run dump-autoload on Composer:
```
php composer.phar dump-autoload
```

Now we can call that class by using its namespace. For example, if we create a route:

Route::get('shape', function()
{
    $shape = new Custom\Shapes\MyShapes;
    return $shape->triangle();
});

How it works...

Namespaces are a powerful addition to PHP, and they allow our classes to be used without us having to worry about their class names interfering with other class names. By autoloading namespaces in Laravel, we could create a complex group of classes and never have to worry about class names conflicting with other namespaces.

For our purposes, we're loading the custom class through composer, and the PSR-0 standard of autoloading.

There's more...

To further extend the use of our namespaced class, we could use the IoC to bind it to our app. More information can be found in the Laravel documentation at http://laravel.com/docs/ioc.

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Amazon verified reviews

saad guessous Dec 08, 2013

This is the kind of book I wish was available 6 months ago when I encountered Laravel for the first time and started to experiment with it. For somebody starting development with Laravel and having no prior experience with the framework this book is a must, as the recipes included covers most of the stuff ranging from beginner to intermediate level and beyond, with whole chapters dealing with basics as installing and setting up, authentication, data storage and querying using ORM, ajax, security, testing and debugging. Although Laravel is a familiar framework, I decided to re-read the chapters on controllers, views, form handling and users authentication and to my surprise I picked up a whole bunch of new information in the process, the chapters on composer and particularly the one on ajax where welcomed as I was seeking similar info on the net... And the one thing I appreciate the most is to have all of the information in one bundle, as it makes the book a good reference to go back to.I'm really pleased with the outcome and I feel the author did a really great job and lastly I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to any developer wishing to use Laravel for his upcoming project.

Amazon Verified review

DJ Far Oct 31, 2014

This a very well-written, easy to follow reference which serves exactly the purpose for which I bought it. It's not a basic primer on Laravel, but a how-to for specific tasks you always need to do with a framework. A very good collection of recipes.

Manuel Ambulo Mar 22, 2015

Excellent book

リク丸 Mar 26, 2014

Laravelの開発と基本、事例などがわかります。Laravel4のネット上のマニュアル&APIリファレンスなどとあわせて見るのに適していると思います。対象は、Laravel未経験者です。(ディープな内容は書いていないです)php経験は必要ですが他のフレームワーク経験がなくても読める本かと思いました。Laravelのクセなどがつかめます。(ネットマニュアル & 記事だけだと若干不安なので読んで見ました)一部で少し情報が古い点もありますが、最新のLaravel4開発でもほとんど通用すると思います。

Gregory M. Sanders Dec 17, 2013

Terry Matula’s Laravel Application Development Cookbook is a good resource for PHP developers who are familiar with MVC code frameworks and want to quickly get up to speed on Laravel. It’s especially valuable for developers like me who have heard about many time-saving dev tools (such as SublimeText2) but never had time to dig into them. This book is totally hands-on, which is great when you’re trying to get a working app up in a short time frame. This isn’t an MVC introduction -- If you haven’t worked with MVC frameworks before, this book might not confuse you, but it might leave you wondering why the code works the way it does.Laravel Application Development Cookbook embraces the reality that today’s dev tools work in integrated development environments, not as self-standing pieces of software. Specific tools used in the book include: Git (with Laravel installed as a submodule) for source control; Apache web server; Sublime Text and NetBeans IDE; Composer as a dependency package installer; OAuth (optionally) for user authorization; Fluent for query building; jQuery for AJAX and general UI functions; Bootstrap for dynamic styling and sizing; PHPUnit for unit testing. Due to the hands-on nature of the narrative, and its reliance on specific tools that integrate well with Laravel, this cookbook’s sample code might be awkward for devs who already have a favorite development toolkit and aren’t interested in adopting new pieces. But for me, this was a huge bonus: learn Laravel and simultaneously get a painless introduction to some good productivity tools. Laravel Application Development Cookbook also gives a good introduction to some of Laravel’s specialized built-in tools: Artisan command line; Eloquent ORM and Blade templating engine, for example.Most of the book’s chapters cover common situations such as creating a textbox with autocomplete, returning data as JSON, validating a user login and displaying nested views. There are also some niche use cases like reading RSS feeds as a data source.This book is well worth reading if you’re interested in trying out Laravel for the first time, or using it more effectively. Full disclosure: I received a free preview copy of this book. I jumped at the chance to preview this because Laravel has gotten good reviews and I needed a good book to get me started on it. I was definitely not disappointed.

Laravel Application Development Cookbook: Since Laravel is so versatile, one of the best learning routes is a cookbook. We've included lots of recipes and guidance on building web application, both simple and complex. It's a pick & mix approach that works brilliantly.

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