Installation: Back-end App

There are a lot of ways to deploy to production. What I describe here is a very plain way to go about it.

I am assuming that you use Laravel Forge to deploy to your production server.

I have yet to deploy my LaSalle Software to Laravel Vapor, but that day is drawing nearer (June 2020).

Forge deploys from a repository, and I am assuming that, like me, you use GitHub.com.

The way I do it is to set up my repository locally, then push to GitHub.com, then have Forge deploy from the GitHub.com repository.

I use MAMP Pro (not an affiliate link) for my local installations. Whatever local environment you use, it comes down to the same things: composer install, creating your database, updating the .env, and then firing up your up locally.

My administrative app needs Laravel Nova to run.

So you need to buy Nova. No, I do not have an affiliate link nor an arrangement.

Nova is installed via composer. The documentation for doing this is here.

Set up your new Laravel site

You will need the usual server stuff for local development. Here's Laravel's server requirements.

Run this command from the command line, which will create a "ls-adminbackup-app" folder, and install LaSalle Software's admin app. Create a folder name that suits your individual needs:
"cd" into the local app's root folder:

If you are setting up this local admin app for production, then change the composer.json

Generally, but especially when you are using Forge for production deployments, paste "composer.forge.json" to your composer.json.

Then run:

Set up your local database

You need a database, so if you have not set up your local database for this local deployment, the please do so now.

Run lslibrary:lasalleinstallenv

Run my custom installation artisan command for setting a few environment variables in your .env file:
Please be very precise with your typing, as my artisan command does not validate anything.

Edit your local .env file

At this point, please review your local .env file.

If "APP_KEY" is blank, then regenerate the application key by running:
You should not see any values beginning with the characters "Dummy", which are placeholder values used in "lslibrary:lasalleinstallenv" for string substitution.

To seed your database with test data, set:
Are your database environment variables correct? They should be, but please double check!

If you are using MAMP, your MySQL may not work so you should add the following "DB_SOCKET" variable to your .env:


Check your .env file (yet again!), then save it.

Run lslibrary:lasalleinstalladminapp

Run my custom installation artisan command for my admin app only:
This command will prepare Laravel Nova, perform an optional database drop, and do the database migration and seeding.

The database seed is necessary to run the admin app.

If you want to include my test data with the seeding, in your .env, set:

Edit the Nova Service Provider

In "App\Providers\NovaServiceProvider", in gate() when you are not including my test data in the seeding, delete all the email addresses except for "bob.bloom@lasallesoftware.ca".

Please note that the emails you specify here will be pushed to GitHub.com for use on your Forge deployment.

Fire up your local LaSalle Software admin app in your browser!

You should see the familiar Laravel welcome view.

Click "login". These credentials are set up so you can log in:

user = bob.bloom@lasallesoftware.ca

password = secret

Change these credentials!

Preamble

Since I use webhooks to trigger a Forge deployment, I need a repository somewhere that Forge can "git pull origin master" from. I pull from a Github repository.

I install a local app first (see the steps above). Then I make this installation a git repository. Then, I create a new Github repository and push my local repository to it.

Now, it's time to set up things on Forge.

I assume that you have your server already set up. Make sure that when you set up your server that you set up your database server as well Forge: Creating a Server With a Database.

Set up your new Laravel site in Forge

click Servers | the-name-of-your-server

you should see "New Site"

set up your new Laravel site, then click "Add Site"

you should see your new site listed in Active Sites

Set up Let's Encrypt SSL in Forge

click Sites | the-name-of-your-site

click SSL

click the "LetsEncrypt" box

make sure that "Domains" is correct, then click "Obtain Certificate".

that's it!

Set up your database, and optionally your database user, in Forge

It's time to set up your database. Your database server should already be installed!

click Servers | the-name-of-your-server

click Database

In the "Add Database" box:

type in the "Name" of your database

type in new "User (Optional)" of your database, ONLY IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A NEW DATABASE USER

type the "Password (Optional)" for your new database user, ONLY IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A NEW DATABASE USER

click "Add Database"

done!

Run lslibrary:lasalleinstallenv

SSH into your cloud server, and cd into your app's root folder.

Run my custom installation artisan command for setting a few environment variables in your .env file:
Please note that Forge has likely changed the values of your database environment variables. So my custom artisan command will not be able to change them if the values are incorrect.

Edit Your .env

click Sites | the-name-of-your-site

click Environment

click "Edit Environment"

Test data will not seed in the "production" environment. Here is the method. Even so, set:
If you want to enable IP address "whitelisting", then set this variable to "yes": and enumerate your "whitelisted" IP addresses:
If you have a lot of IP addresses to "whitelist", then please enumerate them in the "lasallesoftware-library" config file.

The only reason I have an env var for the IP addresses is to get around having to update the config file. It is easier to update the .env in Forge. My LaSalle Software uses the IP address specified in BOTH the .env and the config.

Please scroll down to the database environment variables to double check that they are correct!

The "APP_KEY" environment variable

If APP_KEY is blank, then run php artisan key:generate to generate the application key.

Please save this key somewhere because it is used for encryption. You probably won't need to worry about it, but just in case.

My suggestion where to save your key: AWS Key Management Service.

Run lslibrary:lasalleinstalladminapp

Return to your app's root folder on your cloud server instance.

Run my custom installation artisan command for my admin app only:
This command will prepare Laravel Nova, perform an optional database drop, and do the database migration and seeding.

The database seed is necessary to run the admin app.

In your .env, I highly recommend that you set:
When the "LASALLE_POPULATE_DATABASE_WITH_TEST_DATA" environment variable is false, you will be prompted to create the first user (with the "owner" role). Please follow the prompts to enter your first user's first name, surname, and email address.

Fire up your local LaSalle Software admin app in your browser!

You should see the familiar Laravel welcome view.

Click "login".

If you were prompted to create your first user, then login with the email address that you entered. Your initial password defaults to "secret". Please change this password upon your initial login.

If you seeded your database with test data, then use these credentials to log in:

user = bob.bloom@lasallesoftware.ca

password = secret

In production, you should use cloud storage for your images, especially when you are using multiple domains.

See my doc on Setting Up Amazon Web Services S3.