laravel-from-zero-to-production

🚀 Quick Start Guide - Laravel Projects

This guide allows you to quickly test all 5 Laravel projects created in this book.

📋 Project Overview

✅ 1. Todo Application

• Type : Task management application
• Complexity : Beginner
• Concepts : CRUD, Scopes, Accessors, Validation
• Installation time : ~10 minutes

✅ 2. Blog Platform

• Type : Complete blog platform
• Complexity : Intermediate
• Concepts : Authentication, Relations, Image upload, Authorization
• Installation time : ~15 minutes

✅ 3. REST API

• Type : REST API with authentication
• Complexity : Intermediate
• Concepts : API Resources, Sanctum, Validation, Documentation
• Installation time : ~15 minutes

✅ 4. E-commerce Shop

• Type : Complete online store
• Complexity : Advanced
• Concepts : Cart, Orders, Stripe payments, Services
• Installation time : ~20 minutes

✅ 5. Wizard Form

• Type : Multi-step form creator
• Complexity : Advanced
• Concepts : Dynamic forms, Conditional logic, Templates
• Installation time : ~20 minutes

🛠️ Global Prerequisites

Before starting, make sure you have:

System

• OS : Windows 10+, macOS 10.15+, Ubuntu 18.04+
• RAM : Minimum 4GB (8GB recommended)
• Disk space : 2GB free

Software

• PHP 8.1+ with extensions: curl, mbstring, xml, zip, gd
• Composer 2.0+
• MySQL 8.0+ or PostgreSQL 12+ or SQLite 3
• Git 2.0+
• Node.js 16+ (for frontend assets)

External accounts (optional)

• Stripe (for payments in Shop App)
• GitHub (for deployment)

🚀 Quick Installation

Step 1: Verify environment

# Check PHP
php --version

# Check Composer
composer --version

# Check Node.js
node --version

# Check Git
git --version

Step 2: Clone the project

# If you don't have the project yet
git clone <repository-url>
cd "Laravel From Zero to Production"

Step 3: Basic configuration

# Create Python virtual environment (optional)
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # Linux/Mac
# or
.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1  # Windows

# Install Python dependencies for the website
pip install -r requirements.txt

📱 Testing Projects

1. Todo Application ⭐ (Recommended to start)

# Navigate to the project
cd projects/todo-app

# Install dependencies
composer install

# Configure environment
cp .env.example .env
php artisan key:generate

# Configure database (SQLite for quick testing)
echo "DB_CONNECTION=sqlite" >> .env
echo "DB_DATABASE=database/database.sqlite" >> .env

# Create database file
touch database/database.sqlite

# Run migrations
php artisan migrate

# Start server
php artisan serve

Quick test:

1. Open http://localhost:8000
2. Create a few todos
3. Test filters (All, Pending, Completed)
4. Edit and delete todos

Estimated time: 5-10 minutes

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2. Blog Platform ⭐⭐

# Navigate to the project
cd projects/blog-platform

# Install dependencies
composer install

# Configure environment
cp .env.example .env
php artisan key:generate

# Configure database
echo "DB_CONNECTION=sqlite" >> .env
echo "DB_DATABASE=database/database.sqlite" >> .env

# Create database file
touch database/database.sqlite

# Run migrations
php artisan migrate

# Install Breeze (authentication)
composer require laravel/breeze --dev
php artisan breeze:install blade

# Install frontend assets
npm install
npm run build

# Create symbolic link
php artisan storage:link

# Start server
php artisan serve

Quick test:

1. Open http://localhost:8000
2. Create a user account
3. Create an article with image
4. Test comments
5. Moderate content

Estimated time: 10-15 minutes

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3. REST API ⭐⭐

# Navigate to the project
cd projects/rest-api

# Install dependencies
composer install

# Configure environment
cp .env.example .env
php artisan key:generate

# Configure database
echo "DB_CONNECTION=sqlite" >> .env
echo "DB_DATABASE=database/database.sqlite" >> .env

# Create database file
touch database/database.sqlite

# Run migrations
php artisan migrate

# Install Sanctum
composer require laravel/sanctum
php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Laravel\Sanctum\SanctumServiceProvider"
php artisan migrate

# Start server
php artisan serve

Quick test with curl:

# Test root endpoint
curl http://localhost:8000/api

# Create a user
curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/api/auth/register \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name":"Test User","email":"test@example.com","password":"password123","password_confirmation":"password123"}'

# Login
curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/api/auth/login \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"email":"test@example.com","password":"password123"}'

Estimated time: 10-15 minutes

---

4. E-commerce Shop ⭐⭐⭐

# Navigate to the project
cd projects/shop-app

# Install dependencies
composer install

# Configure environment
cp .env.example .env
php artisan key:generate

# Configure database
echo "DB_CONNECTION=sqlite" >> .env
echo "DB_DATABASE=database/database.sqlite" >> .env

# Create database file
touch database/database.sqlite

# Run migrations
php artisan migrate

# Install Breeze
composer require laravel/breeze --dev
php artisan breeze:install blade

# Install frontend assets
npm install
npm run build

# Create symbolic link
php artisan storage:link

# Start server
php artisan serve

Quick test:

1. Open http://localhost:8000
2. Create a user account
3. Add products to cart
4. Test checkout process
5. Manage orders

Note: Stripe payments require additional configuration.

Estimated time: 15-20 minutes

---

5. Wizard Form ⭐⭐⭐

# Navigate to the project
cd projects/wizard-form

# Install dependencies
composer install

# Configure environment
cp .env.example .env
php artisan key:generate

# Configure database
echo "DB_CONNECTION=sqlite" >> .env
echo "DB_DATABASE=database/database.sqlite" >> .env

# Create database file
touch database/database.sqlite

# Run migrations
php artisan migrate

# Install Breeze
composer require laravel/breeze --dev
php artisan breeze:install blade

# Install frontend assets
npm install
npm run build

# Create symbolic link
php artisan storage:link

# Start server
php artisan serve

Quick test:

1. Open http://localhost:8000
2. Create a user account
3. Create a multi-step form
4. Add fields with validation
5. Publish and test the form

Estimated time: 15-20 minutes

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🔧 Advanced Configuration

MySQL/PostgreSQL Database

If you prefer to use MySQL or PostgreSQL:

# Create database
mysql -u root -p -e "CREATE DATABASE laravel_project CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;"

# Configure .env
DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=laravel_project
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=your_password

Stripe Configuration (Shop App)

# Get Stripe keys from https://dashboard.stripe.com/test/apikeys
STRIPE_KEY=pk_test_your_public_key
STRIPE_SECRET=sk_test_your_secret_key
STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET=whsec_your_webhook_secret

🧪 Automated Tests

Run all tests

# For each project
cd projects/[project-name]
php artisan test

Specific tests

# Feature tests
php artisan test --testsuite=Feature

# Unit tests
php artisan test --testsuite=Unit

# Specific tests
php artisan test --filter=UserTest

🚀 Quick Deployment

Heroku (Recommended for testing)

# Install Heroku CLI
# https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/heroku-cli

# Create application
heroku create my-laravel-project

# Configure environment variables
heroku config:set APP_KEY=base64:$(php artisan key:generate --show)
heroku config:set DB_CONNECTION=postgresql

# Deploy
git push heroku main

# Run migrations
heroku run php artisan migrate

Vercel (Alternative)

# Install Vercel CLI
npm i -g vercel

# Deploy
vercel

📊 Project Comparison

Project	Complexity	Installation time	Key features
Todo App	⭐	5-10 min	CRUD, Filters, Validation
Blog Platform	⭐⭐	10-15 min	Auth, Upload, Relations
REST API	⭐⭐	10-15 min	API, Sanctum, Resources
Shop App	⭐⭐⭐	15-20 min	E-commerce, Stripe, Cart
Wizard Form	⭐⭐⭐	15-20 min	Forms, Conditional logic

🎯 Recommendations

For beginners:

1. Todo Application - Perfect for understanding basics
2. Blog Platform - Good for authentication and relations

For progression:

1. REST API - Excellent for APIs
2. E-commerce Shop - Complex but complete
3. Wizard Form - Advanced with conditional logic

🔍 Troubleshooting

Common problems

Permission error

# Give permissions
chmod -R 775 storage
chmod -R 775 bootstrap/cache

Database error

# Check connection
php artisan tinker
DB::connection()->getPdo();

# Reset migrations
php artisan migrate:fresh

Cache error

# Clear all caches
php artisan cache:clear
php artisan config:clear
php artisan route:clear
php artisan view:clear

Dependency error

# Reinstall dependencies
composer install --no-cache
npm install --no-cache

📚 Additional Resources

Official documentation

• Laravel Documentation
• Laravel Sanctum
• Laravel Breeze

Testing tools

• Postman - For testing APIs
• Insomnia - Alternative to Postman
• Laravel Telescope - Debugging

Databases

• MySQL Workbench
• pgAdmin - For PostgreSQL
• DB Browser for SQLite

🎉 Conclusion

You now have:

• ✅ 5 complete Laravel projects ready to test
• ✅ Detailed tutorials for each project
• ✅ Quick start guide for rapid testing
• ✅ Deployment instructions for production

Next steps:

1. Test each project in order of complexity
2. Customize according to your needs
3. Add additional features
4. Deploy to production
5. Create your own projects using these concepts

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Happy Laravel exploration! 🚀

Don’t forget to consult the detailed tutorials in each project folder for complete instructions.

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