Run a Laravel Container App

back4app containers is a powerful platform for hosting laravel applications with its ability to automatically deploy dockerized laravel apps, you can launch your project in a scalable and flexible environment with ease in this guide, we will walk you through the process of preparing and deploying your laravel application on back4app containers, covering everything from simple projects to more complex setups we will begin with the necessary preparations, then move on to dockerizing the application, testing it locally, pushing the project to github, setting up the project on back4app containers, monitoring deployment, and troubleshooting common issues if you have any questions or comments, feel free to join the conversation in the #containers channel on the back4app community on slack anytime you can also contact us at community\@back4app com at any time, if you want to check a sample working laravel project on back4app containers, go to https //github com/templates back4app/containers laravel sample 1 prepare your laravel application a project structure verify that your laravel application follows a proper directory structure, with all necessary files and folders, such as app , routes , resources , and public , organized appropriately b dependencies check if all required dependencies are listed in the composer json file, including their correct versions ensure that you have installed all dependencies using composer install to generate a composer lock file c environment variables if your application relies on environment variables, ensure that you have a env file with the necessary variables defined when deploying to back4app containers, you will need to configure these environment variables in the deployment settings d server setup (if applicable) if your laravel application includes a custom server (e g , apache or nginx), make sure it is correctly set up and configured to serve your laravel application test your server locally to ensure it works as expected e application optimization optimize your laravel application by implementing performance best practices use tools like lighthouse to audit your application and address any performance or accessibility issues f cross browser compatibility test your application across multiple browsers and devices to ensure proper rendering and functionality once you have thoroughly reviewed and prepared your laravel application, you can proceed to the next step, which is creating a dockerfile for your project 2 dockerization dockerizing a laravel application involves creating a dockerfile in the root directory of your project the dockerfile contains instructions to build a docker image of your application, which can then be deployed to back4app containers here's a detailed explanation of how to create a dockerfile for a regular laravel application 1 create a new file named dockerfile (without any file extension) in the root directory of your laravel application 2 define the base image start the dockerfile by specifying a base image using the from command for a typical laravel application, the base image should be a php image, e g , php 8 1 apache from php 8 1 apache 3 set the working directory use the workdir command to set the working directory for your application within the docker container this is where your application files will be stored and executed workdir /var/www/html 4 copy the project files copy all the files from the laravel application directory to the docker container using the copy command copy 5 install dependencies use the run command to install the required dependencies for your laravel application using composer install run apt get update && apt get install y \\ unzip \\ libzip dev \\ && docker php ext install zip \\ && php r "copy('https //getcomposer org/installer', 'composer setup php');" \\ && php composer setup php install dir=/usr/local/bin filename=composer \\ && php r "unlink('composer setup php');" \\ && composer install no scripts no autoloader prefer dist 6 set up the apache server enable apache's rewrite module, configure the 000 default conf file to include the proper apache settings for laravel, and set up apache environment variables run a2enmod rewrite copy /docker/apache/000 default conf /etc/apache2/sites available/ env apache document root /var/www/html/public 7 generate the laravel app key laravel requires an app key to encrypt user sessions and other sensitive data use the run command to generate the app key run php artisan key\ generate 8 build the laravel application add a run command to build your laravel application using your build script, typically composer dump autoload , php artisan config\ cache , php artisan route\ cache and php artisan view\ cache run composer dump autoload \\ && php artisan config\ cache \\ && php artisan route\ cache \\ && php artisan view\ cache 9 expose the server port use the expose command to specify the port on which your server will run inside the docker container for example, you can use port 80 expose 80 10 start the server use the cmd command to specify the command that starts the server to serve your built laravel application cmd \["apache2 foreground"] the complete dockerfile for a regular laravel application should look like this \#dockerfile example on running php laravel app using apache web server from php 8 1 apache \# install necessary libraries run apt get update && apt get install y \\ libonig dev \\ libzip dev \# install php extensions run docker php ext install \\ mbstring \\ zip \# copy laravel application copy /var/www/html \# set working directory workdir /var/www/html \# install composer copy from=composer\ latest /usr/bin/composer /usr/bin/composer \# install dependencies run composer install \# change ownership of our applications run chown r www data\ www data /var/www/html run docker php ext install mbstring copy env example env run php artisan key\ generate \# expose port 80 expose 80 \# adjusting apache configurations run a2enmod rewrite copy apache config conf /etc/apache2/sites available/000 default conffrom php 8 1 apache workdir /var/www/html copy run apt get update && apt get install y \\ unzip \\ libzip dev \\ && docker php ext install zip \\ && php r "copy('https //getcomposer org/installer', 'composer setup php');" \\ && php composer setup php install dir=/usr/local/bin filename=composer \\ && php r "unlink('composer setup php');" \\ && composer install no scripts no autoloader prefer dist run a2enmod rewrite copy /docker/apache/000 default conf /etc/apache2/sites available/ env apache document root /var/www/html/public run php artisan key\ generate \\ && composer dump autoload \\ && php artisan config\ cache \\ && php artisan route\ cache \\ && php artisan view\ cache expose 80 cmd \["apache2 foreground"] 3 test your project locally before deploying your laravel application on back4app containers, it's important to test it locally using docker this helps ensure that your application runs as expected and helps you identify and fix any issues before deployment build the docker image for your laravel application in your terminal, navigate to your project's root directory and run the following command, replacing your app name with the name of your application run the docker container locally next, run the following command to start the docker container locally this command maps the container's exposed port (e g , 80) to a port on your local machine (e g , 8000) test your application open a web browser and navigate to http //localhost 8080 http //localhost 8000/ to view your laravel application make sure everything works as expected if you encounter any issues, address them before moving on to the next step 4 push your project to github create a gitignore file in your project's root directory to exclude unnecessary or sensitive files from your repository (e g , vendor , env , node modules , etc ) initialize a git repository, commit your project files, and push them to a remote repository (e g , on github) 5 deploy your application on back4app containers after creating your back4app account you can follow the steps listed on the docs 1 connect you github repo with back4app https //www back4app com/docs containers/integrate with github 2 prepare your project for deployment https //www back4app com/docs containers/prepare your deployment in summary, containers will follow the instructions detailed on your dockerfile and start to create your app 6 monitor deployment and address possible errors keep an eye on the deployment logs and status on the back4app containers dashboard address any errors or issues that arise during deployment in case of more complex projects, ensure that all necessary services (such as databases or external apis) are correctly configured and accessible 7 troubleshooting common problems common deployments errors when running a laravel app on back4app containers are listed here https //www back4app com/docs containers/troubleshooting other possible common errors when deploying a laravel application are incorrect port configuration laravel applications should be configured to run on a specified port when deployed on back4app containers if the application is still not accessible, check the dockerfile to make sure the correct port is exposed (e g , expose 80 for port 80) incompatible or missing dependencies ensure that all required dependencies are listed in the composer json file and that their versions are compatible with each other and your application code missing or incompatible dependencies can lead to runtime errors invalid environment variables or configuration check if your application relies on specific environment variables or configuration files, and ensure they are correctly set up in the back4app containers environment set any necessary environment variables in your dockerfile using the env command could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name" error problem this error occurs when apache cannot determine the fully qualified domain name (fqdn) of the server solution to suppress this error, you can set the servername directive globally in the apache configuration modify the apache configuration file ( apache config conf ) as follows apache config conf servername localhost \<virtualhost 80> documentroot /var/www/html/public \<directory /var/www/html/public> allowoverride all order allow,deny allow from all \</directory> \# log access messages to access log file errorlog /var/log/apache2/access log customlog /var/log/apache2/access log combined \# log error messages to error log file loglevel error errorlog /var/log/apache2/error log \</virtualhost> 500 internal server error problem this error indicates that there is an issue with the server configuration or the application itself solution check the apache error logs ( /var/log/apache2/error log ) for more specific error messages this can help identify the root cause of the error verify that the apache configuration file ( apache config conf ) is correctly set up with the appropriate documentroot and directory directives for your laravel application ensure that the necessary php extensions are installed and enabled in the dockerfile use the docker php ext install command to install required extensions, and the run a2enmod command to enable apache modules check the file permissions and ownership of your laravel application files use the chown command to ensure that the files are owned by the appropriate user ( www data in most cases) apache configuration issues problem incorrect or misconfigured apache settings can lead to errors or unexpected behavior solution double check the apache configuration file ( apache config conf ) to ensure that it correctly points to the laravel application's documentroot directory and has the appropriate directory directives enable the rewrite module by running run a2enmod rewrite in the dockerfile this is necessary for laravel's routing to work properly missing or incorrect dependencies problem if your laravel application has missing or incorrect dependencies, it can result in errors or unexpected behavior solution check the composer json file to ensure that all required dependencies are listed, including their correct versions run composer install to install the dependencies and generate a composer lock file verify that the necessary php extensions are installed and enabled in the dockerfile using the docker php ext install command file permission issues problem incorrect file permissions can cause issues with laravel's file storage or cache solution use the chown command in the dockerfile to change the ownership of the laravel application files to the appropriate user ( www data in most cases) ensure that the storage and cache directories have the correct permissions you can run chmod commands in the dockerfile to set the appropriate permissions application crashes or unhandled exceptions unhandled exceptions or crashes in your laravel application code can cause deployment failures or unexpected behavior examine your application logs for any error messages, and address any issues in your code check the container logs by running docker logs your app name to see if there are any errors or exceptions being thrown use a tool like sentry to track and monitor errors in your application server configuration if your laravel application includes a custom server configuration (e g , apache or nginx), make sure it is correctly configured in the dockerfile and that the necessary modules or configurations are installed incorrect file permissions incorrect file permissions can cause runtime errors when deploying a laravel application on back4app containers make sure that the necessary directories and files have the correct permissions, as specified in the laravel documentation memory limitations if your application is running out of memory when deployed on back4app containers, consider increasing the memory limit in the dockerfile using the php ini settings networking issues if your laravel application relies on external services or apis, ensure that they are correctly configured and accessible from within the back4app containers environment use the docker network commands to troubleshoot any networking issues 8 scale your application for more complex projects that require additional resources or horizontal/vertical scaling, consider upgrading your back4app containers plan to handle increased traffic and load 9 sample application for a sample laravel application project you can go to https //github com/templates back4app/containers python flask sample