How to Deploy Laravel Applications on Ubuntu with Apache

Using Laravel for some time I had my fair share of deployments and everything that comes with it. I feel like every time when I do it there is something new that comes up that I’ve never have before, so let’s see the main steps in the deployment.

The project

Probably you already have you project setup, if don’t there a few things that can get you started:

composer create-project laravel/laravel example-app 

and there you have it a new fresh Laravel application ready and on your disposal.

If you are using a project that was cloned you need to be sure to run a few commands before continuing to the next steps:

• php artisan migrate

• composer install

• npm install — optional if the project is using frond-end framework like Vue JS

The setup

After the project is working, it’s time to do some moves. The project folder needs to be moved in order to be able to use it with apache web server.

Starting with moving the project folder:

sudo mv example /var/www/html/

After that, set the necessary permissions to ensure the project runs smoothly:

sudo chgrp -R www-data /var/www/html/example/

sudo chmod -R 775 /var/www/html/example/storage

in most of the cases I’m having issues with this step: the permissions even though the project may run smoothly some issues can occur later in your developing process, always be sure to check if the permissions are set correctly.

Next, you need configuration file for the apache2 if you don’t have one it can be easily created:

First navigate to the apache2 folder:

cd /etc/apache2/sites-available

and then

sudo nano example_project.conf

there you go the file is created, now the more important and trickiest part — the setup

<VirtualHost *:80>
   ServerName thedomain.com
   ServerAdmin webmaster@thedomain.com
   DocumentRoot /var/www/html/example/public

   <Directory /var/www/html/example>
       AllowOverride All
   </Directory>
   ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
   CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

this is pretty much the simplest configuration file, but you need to be very careful for a few things, things that I’ve had problems with many times before…

• ServerName — should be changed to your server IP

• DocumentRoot — very important this should be changed to the path to your project’s public folder, otherwise it won’t work(Trust me…I’ve been there…)

• AllowOveride — something also important, should be set to all so the operating system can work with the socket you can get more in-depth about it on the apache documentation

• ErrorLog & CustomLog — optionally can be set to your Laravel project storage folder, me personally before so, otherwise the logs will be stored in the apache log files. When opting for the Laravel option, you should keep in mind the files needs to exist before adding the path to them.

After those steps are done, you need to enable your config file so the apache server can use it, by doing the following:

Disabling the default configuration:

sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf

Enabling your config file

sudo a2ensite example_project

afterwards you need to activate the rewrite mode to the apache server using:

sudo a2enmod rewrite

and of course to restart the apache server in order for everything to take effect:

sudo systemctl restart apache2

if no errors occur while the command runs it should be ready to go, there a few ways to access your site:

• Type your server IP in the browser — 127.0.0.1 for local

• Using an URL of your choosing

in order to do that, you need to edit some files:

1. Edit your configuration file and change ServerName to be the URL you wish to see in the browser — yourdomain.test

2. Go to the etc\hosts file and change it like:

...
  127.0.0.1 yourdomain.test
...

this way the server will be able to find your website through it, personally prefer that way(I’m Linux guy, after all).

Alternatives

Laravel Herd — amazing tool, looks, works great, if don’t want to all this and you are on MacOS it’s a no-brainer !

XAMPP — great tool, very helpful, works on Windows & Linux, easy to install, for me if you are on Windows(for whatever reason…I’m not judging…) this is the tool for you.

Lerd - the Herd alternative for Linux, has amazing features, everything in one place it's worth it.

Conclusion

It’s pretty easy process, but there a few places were should be careful not to mess up, other than that, I encourage everyone to try, it’s free, it’s fun, you are gonna love it!