Laravel e commerce tutorial Part 2: Setting Up Your Laravel Development Environment

Wed-Nov-2023
29

Part 2: Setting Up Your Laravel Development Environment

In Part 1, we provided an introduction to Laravel and highlighted its importance in e-commerce development. Now, let’s dive into the practical aspects of building your Laravel e-commerce application by setting up your development environment.

2.1 Installing Laravel

Before you start building your e-commerce application, you need to install Laravel. Laravel offers a convenient installer that streamlines the process.

Step 1: Install Composer

Laravel utilizes Composer for dependency management. If you haven’t installed Composer, visit getcomposer.org and follow the installation instructions for your operating system.

Step 2: Install Laravel

Once Composer is installed, open your terminal or command prompt and run the following command to install Laravel:

bash
composer create-project --prefer-dist laravel/laravel your-ecommerce-app

Replace your-ecommerce-app with the desired name for your project.

Step 3: Navigate to Your Project

Move into your project directory:

bash
cd your-ecommerce-app

2.2 Configuring the Database

Laravel uses the .env file to manage environment-specific configuration, including database settings.

Step 1: Create a Database

Create an empty database for your e-commerce application in your database management system (e.g., MySQL, PostgreSQL).

Step 2: Configure .env

Copy the .env.example file to .env:

bash
cp .env.example .env

Open the .env file and update the following fields:

env
DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=your_database_name
DB_USERNAME=your_database_username
DB_PASSWORD=your_database_password

Replace your_database_name, your_database_username, and your_database_password with your database credentials.

Step 3: Generate Application Key

Run the following command to generate a unique application key:

bash
php artisan key:generate

2.3 Composer Dependencies for E-Commerce

To kickstart your e-commerce project, you’ll need a set of Laravel packages tailored for e-commerce development. We’ll use Laravel Jetstream for scaffolding and Laravel Livewire for dynamic, reactive interfaces.

Step 1: Install Jetstream

Run the following command to install Jetstream:

bash
composer require laravel/jetstream

Step 2: Install Livewire

Install Livewire as well:

bash
php artisan jetstream:install livewire

Step 3: Install NPM Dependencies

Install the necessary front-end dependencies using NPM:

bash
npm install && npm run dev

Congratulations! You’ve successfully set up your Laravel development environment for e-commerce. In the next part of the tutorial, we’ll dive into creating the e-commerce database schema. Stay tuned for more hands-on development!