Development environment for Laravel with Vue-JS

Install apache2, php 7.4, mariadb, phpmyadmin, composer, Laravel and VueJS on Linux Mint

1. Apache2

1.1 Installation

As the Apache-webserver is part of the most distributions repositories install it with:

 sudo apt install apache2

1.2 Check successful installation

 sudo systemctl status apache2

2. PHP 7.4

2.1 PHP PPA

PHP 7.3 and PHP 7.4 are not available from the repositories of the distributions. So we will use a PPA (Private Public Archive). Be aware of possible security issues when using PPA's. The newest PHP versions as by now (August 2020) can be found at the PPA from Ondřej Surý.

So lets add that:

 sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
 sudo apt update

2.2 Install PHP 7.4

 sudo apt install php7.4

To check it enter

php -v

It should show version 7.4

3. MariaDB

3.1 Install MariaDB server

For the installation see also the repository configuration page of MariaDB at: https://downloads.mariadb.org/mariadb/repositories/

 sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
 sudo apt-key adv --fetch-keys 'https://mariadb.org/mariadb_release_signing_key.asc'
 sudo add-apt-repository 'deb [arch=amd64,arm64,ppc64el] http://ftp.nluug.nl/db/mariadb/repo/10.5/ubuntu bionic main'

Once this is ready get the MariaDB-server installed with:

 sudo apt update
 sudo apt install mariadb-server

Note!: In my case the mirrorserver is at ftp.nluug.nl. In your case it may vary. So check the commands with the repository configuration page of MariaDB. See link above.

3.2 Securing MariaDB

The secure (harden) your MariaDB installation use the following command:

 sudo mysql_secure_installation

and follow the instructions.

3.3 Add user with admin privileges

Don’t use the root user at all. Via the command above remote access for root is prohibited. So you need another user with admin rights to allow remote login and administer your MariaDB installation.

3.3.1 Log in MariaDB a last time as root with:

 mysql -u root -p

Enter the above in part 3.2 created password.

3.3.2 Add a user with:

 CREATE USER IF NOT EXISTS 'username' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';

3.3.3 Give all necessary rights / permissions to this user:

 GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'username' IDENTIFIED BY 'password' with grant option;

3.3.4 Make it active with:

 FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

3.3.5 Verify all is correct with:

 SHOW GRANTS FOR 'username'@localhost;

4. PHPMyAdmin

4.1 Install dependencies with:

 sudo apt install php7.4-mysql php7.4-mbstring php7.4-zip unzip

4.2 Activate the modules

 sudo phpenmod mysqlisudo phpenmod mbstringsudo phpenmod zip

4.3 Download the latest stable version with

 wget https://www.phpmyadmin.net/downloads/phpMyAdmin-latest-all-languages.zip

unzip it:

 unzip phpMyAdmin-latest-all-languages.zip

4.4 Make directory for PHPMyAdmin

 sudo mkdir /var/www/phpmyadmin

4.5 Copy files in place:

 sudo cp -r phpMyAdmin-*/* /var/www/phpmyadmin/

4.6 Allow access to apache

 sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/phpmyadmin
 sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/phpmyadmin

4.7 Tell Apache hat phpmyadmin exists

To access PHPMyAdmin at www.domain.com/phpmyadmin you have to tell apache to do so by adding a configuration.

So create one with:

 sudo vi /etc/apache2/conf-available/phpmyadmin.conf

With this content:

 Alias /phpmyadmin /var/www/phpmyadmin/ 
 
 <Directory /var/www/phpmyadmin/> 
 
  AllowOverride all 
 
 </Directory>

4.8 Activate the configuration

 sudo a2enconf phpmyadmin
 sudo systemctl reload apache2

4.9 Securing PHPMyAdmin

For security reasons and in a production environment it is recommended to harden access to the phpmyadmin directory with an .htaccess file and password

4.9.1 Create an .htaccess file with

 sudo vi /var/www/phpmyadmin/.htaccess

with the following content:

 AuthType Basic
 
 AuthName "Restricted Files"
 
 AuthUserFile /var/www/phpmyadmin/.htpasswd
 
 Require valid-user

4.9.2 Create the .htpasswd file

 sudo htpasswd -c /var/www/phpmyadmin/.htpasswd USERNAME

Choose a password different then the passwords you use in MariaDB for extra security.

When ready you should be prompted for a password when attempting to open phpmyadmin.

4.10 Secret passphrase for cookie-authentication

After the installation you’ll see this error when you log in to PHPMYAdmin.

Open config.inc.php ( or rename config.sample.inc.php to config.inc.php if you haven’t done so yet ) and change the line with

 $cfg['blowfish_secret'] = ; /* YOU MUST FILL IN THIS FOR COOKIE AUTH! */

to

 $cfg['blowfish_secret'] = '<verysecretpassword>'; /* YOU MUST FILL IN THIS FOR COOKIE AUTH! */

where <verysecretpassword> must be 32 characters long.

You don’t have to remember this password, so I can be a happy mix of chars, numbers and special characters you like.

Never use a password you use in production.

5. Composer

Install composer on your system following the instructions on their website to get the latest: Install composer

Beware that this commands may change on new releases. Below is only an example.

For the actual installation instructions look at the composer website.

 php -r "copy('https://getcomposer.org/installer', 'composer-setup.php');"
 
 php -r "if (hash_file('sha384', 'composer-setup.php') === 'e5325b19b381bfd88ce90a5ddb7823406b2a38cff6bb704b0acc289a09c8128d4a8ce2bbafcd1fcbdc38666422fe2806') { echo 'Installer verified'; } else { echo 'Installer corrupt'; unlink('composer-setup.php'); } echo PHP_EOL;"
 
 php composer-setup.php --install-dir=bin --filename=composer
 
 php -r "unlink('composer-setup.php');"

6. NodeJS and NPM

6.1 Official install instructions per version:

Install NodeJS instructions

6.2 tl;dr

 curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_12.x | sudo -E bash -
 
 sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

7. Laravel

7.1 Laravel installer

Install it via composer.

 composer global require laravel/installer

7.1.1 Add the path to the executable to your PATH environment-variable:

Edit $HOME/.profile and add

 $HOME/.config/composer/vendor/bin

or

 $HOME/.composer/vendor/bin

to your PATH-variable.

The exact location can be found by the following command:

 composer global about

7.2 Create a new Laravel project

7.2.1 PHP-dependencies

The installer requires the php-xml dependency. So install it with:

 sudo apt install php-xml

7.2.2 Create new project

Go to the location where your project should live and execute:

 laravel new <projectsname>

After that cd into the new project directory.

7.2.3 Frontend Scaffolding aka get an UserInterface (UI)

7.2.3.1 VUE-JS

As this is for Vue-JS use the next command:

 composer require laravel/ui
 
 php artisan ui vue

7.2.3.2 Bootstrap

With the installation of the vue ui also Bootstrap is installed. Open package.json in the projects root folder to verify.

7.2.3.1 Content package.json

 "devDependencies": {
 
     "axios": "^0.19",
 
     "bootstrap": "^4.0.0", ← There it is!!!
 
     "cross-env": "^7.0",
 
     "jquery": "^3.2",
 
     "laravel-mix": "^5.0.1",
 
     "lodash": "^4.17.19",
 
     "popper.js": "^1.12",
 
     "resolve-url-loader": "^2.3.1",
 
     "sass": "^1.20.1",
 
     "sass-loader": "^8.0.0",
 
     "vue": "^2.5.17",
 
     "vue-template-compiler": "^2.6.10"
 
 }

So we can use it now.

You will see a notice on the terminalwindow to use npm to install everything needed.

 npm install && npm run dev

7.2.5 File and directory permissions

I assume that these settings are correct after the installation, but if not set them as follows:

7.2.5.1 Files

 sudo find <laravel-rootdirectory> -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \; 

7.2.5.2 Directories

 sudo find <laravel-rootdirectory> -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;

7.2.7 Give apache the right to write to storage (upload, logs…) and cache

Go to your projects root directory and execute the following commands:

 sudo chgrp -R www-data storage bootstrap/cache
 sudo chmod -R ug+rwx storage bootstrap/cache

7.3 Create webconfiguration for this project

7.3.1 Create a new config file with:

 sudo vi /etc/apache2/sites-available/www.my-website.localhost.conf

and insert this content:

 <VirtualHost *:80>
 
     ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
 
     ServerName my-website.localhost
 
     ServerAlias www.my-website.localhost
 
     DocumentRoot /path/to/your/project/public/
 
     LogLevel debug
 
     ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
 
     CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
 
     <Directory /path/to/your/project/public/>
         Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
 
         AllowOverride All
 
         Order allow,deny
 
         allow from all
 
         Require all granted
 
     </Directory>
 </VirtualHost>

Where my-website.localhost should be your website name / address and the ServerAdmin email should be your actual email address for that website admin.

DocumentRoot should be the path to your website files.

If you decide to keep the logfiles apart for each website, for instance at

 ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/my-website/error.log

don’t forget to add a subdirectory to /var/log/apache or apache won't start.

 sudo mkdir /var/log/apache/my-website

7.3.2 Activate the new website and deactivate the default one

 sudo a2ensite www.my-website.localhost.conf
 
 sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf
 
 sudo systemctl restart apache2

7.3.3 Alias the website in your /etc/hosts for easy access vie your browser

Open the file with:

 sudo vi /etc/hosts

and add

 127.0.0.1www.my-website.localhost

8. Create Database and User

8.1 Create Database in PHPMyAdmin

Open PHPMyAdmin in your browser (www.my-website.com/phpmyadmin) and click on New on the left panel or go to the databases tab and create there a new one.

I prefer utf8mb4_unicode_ci as collation.

8.2 Create a User for this databases

In PHPMyAdmin go to the Userstab. If you don’t see it (because you are on the databasetab for instance), first go back to the startpage.

Add a user by clicking on Add User. The new user can have only local access if app and database are on the same server / machine, but if not choose any host.

8.3 Grant user rights to the databases

In the user tab click on Edit privileges to go to the user preferences page.

There click on the database button and select the database your user should get the rights to and click ok.

On the next screen grant rights to data and structure by checking the boxes and click ok.

8.3 Verify the new username

Log out of PHPMyAdmin and login again with the new created user and password. If successful you should only see the database you granted the permissions to.

9. Give Laravel access to the databases

9.1 Edit the .env file

Open the .env file in your editor og choice (I use Atom for development) and set the DB_ variables according the data you used to create the database and user.

As an example

 DB_CONNECTION=mysql
 DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
 DB_PORT=3306
 DB_DATABASE=MyDB
 DB_USERNAME=MyDBUser
 DB_PASSWORD=MYDBPassword

Save that changes.

9.2 First migration

Go to projects root directory in your shell and execute the following command.

php artisan migrate:install

You should be answered with:

 Migration table created successfully.

In your database a new table migrations is created. Here all migrations will be stored.

Now execute

 php artisan migrate

The response will show that a user table, a password reset table and failed jobs table are created.

Migrating: 2014_10_12_000000_create_users_table
 Migrated: 2014_10_12_000000_create_users_table (0.02 seconds)
 Migrating: 2014_10_12_100000_create_password_resets_table
 Migrated: 2014_10_12_100000_create_password_resets_table (0.02 seconds)
 Migrating: 2019_08_19_000000_create_failed_jobs_table
 Migrated: 2019_08_19_000000_create_failed_jobs_table (0.01 seconds)

A. Extras

Atom addons for developing Laravel projects

• Language-blade
• Blade-snippets
• Blade spacer

• Language-vue
• Vue-snippets