Forem: Brian

How to Deploy a Laravel App on Shared Hosting (The Right Way)

Brian — Wed, 07 May 2025 12:46:38 +0000

Not every project needs a VPS or cloud infrastructure. If you're working with a tight budget or launching a side project, shared hosting might be your go-to.

But deploying a Laravel app on shared hosting isn’t as straightforward as uploading files — it requires a few tweaks. In this guide, I’ll walk you through how to deploy Laravel properly on a cPanel-style shared hosting environment.

🧰 What You’ll Need

A Laravel project (locally tested)
Access to shared hosting (cPanel-based)
PHP 8.1+ on the server
Database (MySQL)
FTP or File Manager access

📁 Step 1: Prepare Laravel for Production

Before uploading anything, clean and prep your Laravel project:

Update environment config in .env.production:

   APP_ENV=production
   APP_DEBUG=false
   APP_URL=https://yourdomain.com

Run the following commands locally:

php artisan config:cache php artisan route:cache php artisan view:cache

Zip everything except node_modules and .git.

📦 Step 2: Upload Files to the Server

Log in to your hosting panel.
Open File Manager and go to the root of your site (usually public_html).
Upload your zipped Laravel project.
Extract it there — it will create a folder like laravel-app.

🔁 Step 3: Point `public/` to the Root

Laravel’s entry point is public/index.php, but shared hosting expects everything in public_html. Two options:

✅ Option 1: Move Files (Recommended)

Move everything from laravel-app/public/ into public_html/.

Then edit index.php in public_html:

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

➡ Change paths to:

php require __DIR__.'/../laravel-app/vendor/autoload.php'; $app = require_once __DIR__.'/../laravel-app/bootstrap/app.php';

⚠️ Option 2: Use .htaccess Rewrite

(Not ideal. Option 1 is more stable and secure.)

🛠️ Step 4: Set Permissions

Ensure proper permissions:

chmod -R 755 storage chmod -R 755 bootstrap/cache

Some hosts allow this via the file manager. Others might need support help.

🛢️ Step 5: Configure the Database

In cPanel, create a new MySQL database and user.
Grant the user full access to the DB.
In your .env file (on the server), update the following:

env DB_CONNECTION=mysql DB_HOST=localhost DB_PORT=3306 DB_DATABASE=your_db DB_USERNAME=your_user DB_PASSWORD=your_password

Then run migrations by visiting:

https://yourdomain.com/artisan/migrate

Or trigger it using a route/controller if CLI is unavailable.

🧪 Step 6: Test Everything

Visit https://yourdomain.com
Make sure routes, DB, and views load
Check for permission issues in logs (storage/logs)

💡 Bonus Tips

Use php artisan storage:link manually by creating a symlink via cPanel Terminal
Use a custom .htaccess to force HTTPS and pretty URLs
Don’t upload .env locally — create it on the server from .env.production

✅ Conclusion

Deploying Laravel on shared hosting isn’t as elegant as with tools like Forge or Amezmo, but it’s absolutely doable. With some tweaks and careful file organization, you can make it work reliably.

A Beginner's Guide to Deploying PHP Apps with Amezmo

Brian — Wed, 07 May 2025 12:41:38 +0000

If you're tired of complex deployment pipelines and fiddly VPS setups, Amezmo might be exactly what you need. It's a fully managed PHP hosting platform designed specifically for modern PHP apps like Laravel, Slim, and vanilla PHP.

In this beginner-friendly guide, we'll walk through how to deploy a PHP application on Amezmo in just a few minutes — no DevOps background required.

🧰 Why Use Amezmo?

Before we jump into the steps, here’s why Amezmo is worth considering:

⚡ Instant deployments via Git
🔒 Free SSL and daily backups
🐘 PHP 8.x support out of the box
🪄 Composer, queues, and crons built-in
🔥 No server maintenance required

It’s built for PHP, and that makes it super streamlined compared to general-purpose providers.

🛠️ Step 1: Sign Up and Create an App

Head to amezmo.com and sign up.
Once inside your dashboard, click "New App".
Choose:
- A name for your app
- Your Git provider (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket)
- The branch to deploy
- PHP version (e.g., PHP 8.2)
Click Create App.

Amezmo will spin up an isolated environment for your app — no server provisioning required!

🔧 Step 2: Configure Environment Settings

Head to the Environment tab for your app:

Add .env variables (just like Laravel or other frameworks)
Enable SSL for HTTPS (free via Let's Encrypt)
Choose a document root — for Laravel, it's usually /public

Click Save after you configure your environment.

📦 Step 3: Deploy Your Code

Amezmo uses Git to deploy your app. It can pull directly from your Git repo.

To deploy:

Either manually trigger a deploy from the dashboard or
Push to the branch you connected during app creation

Amezmo will:

Clone the repo
Run composer install
Deploy the app
Reload your web process

It’s that simple.

⚙️ Step 4: Set Up Queues, Crons, and Background Tasks

Laravel users — you're in luck.

Under the Workers section, you can:

Add a php artisan queue:work process
Schedule artisan schedule:run in the Crons tab (every minute)
Run any long-running command you need

No need to SSH in or configure Supervisor manually.

📁 Step 5: Manage Storage and Backups

Amezmo gives you:

Persistent /storage directory
Daily automatic backups of code and DB
One-click restore in case of failure

For Laravel apps, storage is already pre-configured. Just run:


bash
php artisan storage:link

🛠️ How to Deploy a Laravel App with Zero Downtime Using Git Hooks

Brian — Wed, 07 May 2025 12:35:52 +0000

Deploying a Laravel application can be as simple or as sophisticated as you want it to be. If you're working on a small project or don't want the overhead of CI/CD tools, Git hooks provide a lightweight way to automate your deployment — with minimal downtime.

In this tutorial, we’ll walk through setting up a zero-downtime Git-based deployment flow for your Laravel app using a post-receive hook.

🔍 What You'll Need

A server (e.g., Ubuntu-based VPS or cloud instance)
SSH access
Git installed on both local and server
A Laravel project under version control
Basic Linux terminal skills

Step 1: Prepare the Server

First, SSH into your server:

ssh user@your-server-ip

Install the required packages (if you haven’t already):

sudo apt update
sudo apt install git unzip php-cli php-mbstring php-xml php-bcmath php-curl composer -y

Create a directory where your Laravel app will live:

mkdir -p /var/www/myapp
cd /var/www/myapp

Step 2: Initialize a Bare Git Repository

Create a bare Git repository to receive code from your local machine:

mkdir -p /home/deploy/myapp.git
cd /home/deploy/myapp.git
git init --bare

This bare repo is where your code will be pushed — it won’t contain a working tree (no real files), just Git metadata.

Step 3: Create the post-receive Hook

Inside your bare repo:

cd /home/deploy/myapp.git/hooks
nano post-receive

Paste this script into post-receive:

#!/bin/bash

GIT_WORK_TREE=/var/www/myapp git checkout -f

cd /var/www/myapp

# Install PHP dependencies
composer install --no-interaction --prefer-dist --optimize-autoloader

# Set permissions
chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/myapp
chmod -R 775 /var/www/myapp/storage

# Laravel setup
php artisan migrate --force
php artisan config:cache
php artisan route:cache
php artisan view:cache

Make the hook executable:

chmod +x post-receive

Step 4: Add the Server as a Git Remote on Your Local Machine

Back on your local machine:

git remote add production ssh://user@your-server-ip:/home/deploy/myapp.git

To push your code:

git push production main

This will trigger the post-receive hook and deploy the latest version of your app.

Optional: Zero Downtime with Atomic Deployment

If you want true zero downtime, add atomic deploys using a symlinked current directory:

Push to a timestamped release folder like /var/www/releases/20250507120000
After deployment, update a symlink: ln -sfn /var/www/releases/20250507120000 /var/www/myapp
Your web server always points to /var/www/myapp, which stays live

You can extend the post-receive hook to automate this entire process.

🔐 Bonus Tips for Production

Use .env.production and symlink it after each deploy
Set up a queue worker supervisor (e.g., with supervisord or systemd)
Monitor logs via journalctl or Laravel's /storage/logs/laravel.log

Conclusion

Git hooks offer a powerful, low-cost deployment solution — perfect for solo developers, MVPs, or side projects. With a little scripting and Laravel tooling, you can automate everything and deploy confidently with minimal or no downtime.

Getting started with Laravel

Brian — Fri, 12 Jul 2024 21:09:10 +0000

How to create a Laravel Project
For beginners who would like to get started with Laravel, i'll provide the most crucial snippets of code that you will encounter in this amazing framework

Prerequisites

PHP: Laravel requires PHP 8.0 or later.
Composer: This is a dependency manager for PHP
Web server: Apache, Nginx, or Laravel's built-in-server

Start your XAMPP web server since this will be required for the database

Creatae a new project using composer directly. Replace project-name with the desired name

composer create-project --prefer-dist laravel/laravel project-name

cd project-name

cd project-name

Serve the Application

php artisan serve

This command will start the development server at 'http://localhost:8000'.

Configure your environemnt

Laravel uses a '.env file for environmental configuaration. Open the '.env' file in the root of your project and configure your database and other settings

As for the latest installation it comes with sqlite by default but i prefer using mysql so we are going to change that

This is what it looks like by default

DB_CONNECTION=sqlite
# DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
# DB_PORT=3306
# DB_DATABASE=laravel
# DB_USERNAME=root
# DB_PASSWORD=

change it to, make sure to uncomment the commented parts

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=laravel-dev-database
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=

Run migrations
Laravel uses migrations to create database tables. Run the migration with

php artisan migrate

Laravel uses MVC (Model, View, Controller) Architecture
We are going to discuss this in a moment

Congratulations, you have successfully created your first Laravel application.

Insert data in to MYSQL database using PHP

Brian — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 23:23:21 +0000

Requirements

XAMPP/LAMPP Server

2.Editor( VS code/ Sublime text)

Step 1

Navigate to the htdocs folder and create folder named student, create an index.php in the student folder,

paste the code below


<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>User Details Form</title>
</head>
<body>

<h2>User Details Form</h2>

<form action="process_form.php" method="post">
    <label for="name">Name:</label>
    <input type="text" id="name" name="name" required><br><br>

    <label for="email">Email:</label>
    <input type="email" id="email" name="email" required><br><br>

    <label for="course">Course:</label>
    <input type="text" id="course" name="course" required><br><br>

    <input type="submit" value="Submit">
</form>

</body>
</html>

Create a new file process_form.php

<?php
if ($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "POST") {
    // Retrieve user input from the form
    $name = $_POST["name"];
    $email = $_POST["email"];
    $course = $_POST["course"];

    // Database connection details
    $hostname = "localhost";
    $username = "root";
    $password = "";
    $database = "tech_art";

    // Create a database connection
    $conn = new mysqli($hostname, $username, $password, $database);

    // Check the connection
    if ($conn->connect_error) {
        die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
    }

    // Prepare and execute the SQL query to insert data into the database
    $sql = "INSERT INTO user_details (name, email, course) VALUES (?, ?, ?)";
    $stmt = $conn->prepare($sql);
    $stmt->bind_param("sss", $name, $email, $course);

    if ($stmt->execute()) {
        echo "<h2>Data saved successfully!</h2>";
    } else {
        echo "<h2>Error: " . $stmt->error . "</h2>";
    }

    // Close the statement and connection
    $stmt->close();
    $conn->close();
}
?>

NB:Change the database details accordingly

Create the database and tables

Navigate to access the admin section that manages databases in Mysql

http://localhost/phpmyadmin/index.php

Create a database named tech_art,

We'' use queries to create our table

Paste the following query and run to create the table


CREATE TABLE user_details (
    id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
    name VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    email VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    course VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL
);

This will create the table that will be used to store the details needed

Navigate to your browser and paste the following link

http://localhost/student/

Input the details and taraaa you have saved the details in the database!

Hope you had fun,incase of any question please reach out.