25 PHP Interview Questions and Answers You Should Know

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January 1, 2019 in MySql, Php, Tips and Tricks

25 PHP Interview Questions and Answers You Should Know

25 PHP Interview Questions and Answers You Should Know

PHP Interview Question #1

What’s the difference between the include() and require()functions?

They both include a specific file but on require the process exits with a fatal error if the file can’t be included, while include statement may still pass and jump to the next step in the execution.

PHP Interview Question #2

How can we get the IP address of the client?

This question might show you how playful and creative the candidate is because there are many options. $_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"]; is the easiest solution, but the candidate can write x line scripts for this question.

PHP Interview Question #3

What’s the difference between unset() and unlink()

unset() sets a variable to “undefined” while unlink() deletes a file we pass to it from the file system.

PHP Interview Question #4

What is the output of the following code:

$a = '1';
$b = &$a;
$b = "2$b";
echo $a.", ".$b;

PHP Interview Question #5

What are the main error types in PHP and how do they differ?

In PHP there are three main type of errors:

  • Notices – Simple, non-critical errors that are occurred during the script execution. An example of a Notice would be accessing an undefined variable.
  • Warnings – more important errors than Notices, however the scripts continue the execution. An example would be include() a file that does not exist.
  • Fatal – this type of error causes a termination of the script execution when it occurs. An example of a Fatal error would be accessing a property of a non-existent object or require() a non-existent file.

Understanding the error types is very important as they help developers understand what is going on during the development, and what to look out for during debugging.

PHP Interview Question #6

What is the difference between GET and POST?

  • GET displays the submitted data as part of the URL, during POST this information is not shown as it’s encoded in the request.
  • GET can handle a maximum of 2048 characters, POST has no such restrictions.
  • GET allows only ASCII data, POST has no restrictions, binary data are also allowed.
  • Normally GET is used to retrieve data while POST to insert and update.

Understanding the fundamentals of the HTTP protocol is very important to have for a PHP developer, and the differences between GET and POST are an essential part of it.

PHP Interview Question #7

How can you enable error reporting in PHP?

Check if “display_errors” is equal “on” in the php.ini or declare “ini_set('display_errors', 1)” in your script.
Then, include “error_reporting(E_ALL)” in your code to display all types of error messages during the script execution.

Enabling error messages is very important especially during the debugging process as one can instantly get the exact line that is producing the error and can see also if the script in general is behaving correctly.

PHP Interview Question #8

What are Traits?

Traits are a mechanism that allows you to create reusable code in languages like PHP where multiple inheritance is not supported. A Trait cannot be instantiated on its own.

It’s important that a developer knows the powerful features of the language (s)he is working on, and Trait is one of such features.

PHP Interview Question #9

Can the value of a constant change during the script’s execution?

No, the value of a constant cannot be changed once it’s declared during the PHP execution.

PHP Interview Question #10

Can you extend a Final defined class?

No, you cannot extend a Final defined class. A Final class or method declaration prevents child class or method overriding.

PHP Interview Question #11

What are the __construct() and __destruct() methods in a PHP class?

All objects in PHP have Constructor and Destructor methods built-in. The Constructor method is called immediately after a new instance of the class is being created, and it’s used to initialize class properties. The Destructor method takes no parameters.

Understanding these two in PHP means that the candidate knows the very basics of OOP in PHP.

PHP Interview Question #12

How we can get the number of elements in an array?

The count() function is used to return the number of elements in an array.

Understanding of arrays and array related helper functions is important for any PHP developer.

PHP Interview Question #13

How would you declare a function that receives one parameter name hello?
If hello is true, then the function must print hello, but if the function doesn’t receive hello or hello is false the function must print bye.

<?php
function showMessage($hello=false){
  echo ($hello)?'hello':'bye';
}
?>

In this question, you can evaluate if the developer knows how to declare a function and how they would manage the fact of the parameter can or cannot be on the function call. You can also evaluate if the developer knows the if syntax and how to print text(echo function).

PHP Interview Question #14

The value of the variable input is a string 1,2,3,4,5,6,7. How would you get the sum of the integers contained inside input?

<?php
echo array_sum(explode(',',$input));
?>

The explode function is one of the most used functions in PHP, so it’s important to know if the developer knows this function. There is no unique answer to this question, but the answer must be similar to this one.

PHP Interview Question #15

Suppose you receive a form submitted by a post to subscribe to a newsletter. This form has only one field, an input text field named email. How would you validate whether the field is empty? Print a message "The email cannot be empty" in this case.

<?php
if(empty($_POST['email'])){
  echo "The email cannot be empty";
}
?>

In this question, the candidate should be evaluated on his/her knowledge about forms management and validation. There is not unique answer for this question, but it must be similar to this one.

PHP Interview Question #15

Suppose that you have to implement a class named Dragonball. This class must have an attribute named ballCount (which starts from 0) and a method iFoundaBall. When iFoundaBall is called, ballCount is increased by one. If the value of ballCount is equal to seven, then the message You can ask your wish is printed, and ballCount is reset to 0. How would you implement this class?

<?php
class dragonBall{
  private $ballCount;

  public function __construct(){
    $this->ballCount=0;
  }

  public function iFoundaBall(){
    $this->ballCount++;
    if($this->ballCount===7){
      echo "You can ask for your wish.";
      $this->ballCount=0;
    }
  }
}
?>

This question will evaluate a candidate’s knowledge about OOP.

PHP Interview Question #16

What are the 3 scope levels available in PHP and how would you define them?

Private – Visible only in its own class
Public – Visible to any other code accessing the class
Protected – Visible only to classes parent(s) and classes that extend the current class

This is important for any PHP developer to know because it shows an understanding that building applications is more than just being able to write code. One must also have an understanding about privileges and accessibility of that code. There are times protected variables or methods are extremely important, and an understanding of scope is needed to protect the integrity of the data in your application along with provide a clear path through the code.

PHP Interview Question #17

What are getters and setters and why are they important?

Getters and setters are methods used to declare or obtain the values of variables, usually private ones. They are important because it allows for a central location that is able to handle data prior to declaring it or returning it to the developer. Within a getter or setter one is able to consistently handle data that will eventually be passed into a variable or additional functions. An example of this would be a user’s name. If a setter is not being used and the developer is just declaring the $userName variable by hand, you could end up with results as such: "kevin", "KEVIN", "KeViN", "", etc. With a setter, the developer can not only adjust the value, for example, ucfirst($userName), but can also handle situations where the data is not valid such as the example where "" is passed. The same applies to a getter – when the data is being returned, it can be modifyed the results to include strtoupper($userName) for proper formatting further up the chain.

This is important for any developer who is looking to enter a team-based / application development job to know. Getters and setters are often used when dealing with objects, especially ones that will end up in a database or other storage medium. Because PHP is commonly used to build web applications, developers will run across getters and setters in more advanced environments. They are extremely powerful yet not talked about very much. It is impressive if a developer shows that he/she knows what they are and how to use them early on.

PHP Interview Question #18

What does MVC stand for and what does each component do?

MVC stands for Model View Controller.
The controller handles data passed to it by the view and also passes data to the view. It’s responsible for interpretation of the data sent by the view and dispersing that data to the appropriate models awaiting results to pass back to the view. Very little, if any business logic should be occurring in the controller.

The model’s job is to handle specific tasks related to a specific area of the application or functionality. Models will communicate directly with your database or other storage system and will handle business logic related to the results.

The view is passed data by the controller and is displayed to the user.

Overall, this question is worth knowing as the MVC design pattern has been used a lot in the last few years and is a very good design pattern to know. Even with more advanced flows that go down to repositories and entities, they still are following the same basic idea for the Controller and View. The Model is typically just split out into multiple components to handle specific tasks related to database data, business logic etc. The MVC design pattern helps draw a better understanding of what is being used, as a whole, in the industry.

PHP Interview Question #19

How does one prevent the following Warning ‘Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent’ and why does it occur in the first place?

The candidate should not output anything to the browser before using code that modifies the HTTP headers. Once the developer calls echoor any other code that clears the buffer, the developer can no longer set cookies or headers. That is also true for error messages, so if an error happens before using the header command and the INI directive display_errors is set, then that will also cause that error to show.

PHP Interview Question #20

What are SQL Injections, how do you prevent them and what are the best practices?

SQL injections are a method to alter a query in a SQL statement send to the database server. That modified query then might leak information like username/password combinations and can help the intruder to further compromise the server.

To prevent SQL injections, one should always check & escape all user input. In PHP, this is easily forgotten due to the easy access to $_GET & $_POST, and is often forgotten by inexperienced developers. But there are also many other ways that users can manipulate variables used in a SQL query through cookies or even uploaded files (filenames). The only real protection is to use prepared statements everywhere consistently.

Do not use any of the mysql_* functions which have been deprecated since PHP 5.5 ,but rather use PDO, as it allows you to use other servers than MySQL out of the box. mysqli_* are still an option, but there is no real reason nowadays not to use PDO, ODBC or DBA to get real abstraction. Ideally you want to use Doctrine or Propel to get rid of writing SQL queries all together and use object-relational mapping which binds rows from the database to objects in the application.

PHP Interview Question #21

What does the following code output?

$i = 016;
echo $i / 2;

The Output should be 7. The leading zero indicates an octal number in PHP, so the number evaluates to the decimal number 14 instead to decimal 16.

PHP Interview Question #22

Why would you use === instead of ==?

If you would want to check for a certain type, like an integer or boolean, the === will do that exactly like one would expect from a strongly typed language, while == would convert the data temporarily and try to match both operand’s types. The identity operator (===) also performs better as a result of not having to deal with type conversion. Especially when checking variables for true/false, one should avoid using == as this would also take into account 0/1 or other similar representation.

PHP Interview Question #23

What are PSRs? Choose 1 and briefly describe it.

PSRs are PHP Standards Recommendations that aim at standardising common aspects of PHP Development.

An example of a PSR is PSR-2, which is a coding style guide. More info on PSR-2.

PHP Interview Question #24

What PSR Standards do you follow? Why would you follow a PSR standard?

One should folow a PSR because coding standards often vary between developers and companies. This can cause issues when reviewing or fixing another developer’s code and finding a code structure that is different from yours. A PSR standard can help streamline the expectations of how the code should look, thus cutting down confusion and in some cases, syntax errors.

PHP Interview Question #25

Do you use Composer? If yes, what benefits have you found in it?

Using Composer is a tool for dependency management. The candidate can declare the libraries your product relies on and Composer will manage the installation and updating of the libraries. The benefit is a consistent way of managing the libraries depended on so less time is spent managing the libraries.

December 28, 2018 in Learning, MySql

Database Configuration CodeIgniter

Database Configuration CodeIgniter

Database Configuration

CodeIgniter has a config file that lets you store your database connection values (username, password, database name, etc.). The config file is located at application/config/database.php. You can also set database connection values for specific environments by placing database.php in the respective environment config folder.

The config settings are stored in a multi-dimensional array with this prototype:

$db['default'] = array(
        'dsn'   => '',
        'hostname' => 'localhost',
        'username' => 'root',
        'password' => '',
        'database' => 'database_name',
        'dbdriver' => 'mysqli',
        'dbprefix' => '',
        'pconnect' => TRUE,
        'db_debug' => TRUE,
        'cache_on' => FALSE,
        'cachedir' => '',
        'char_set' => 'utf8',
        'dbcollat' => 'utf8_general_ci',
        'swap_pre' => '',
        'encrypt' => FALSE,
        'compress' => FALSE,
        'stricton' => FALSE,
        'failover' => array()
);

Some database drivers (such as PDO, PostgreSQL, Oracle, ODBC) might require a full DSN string to be provided. If that is the case, you should use the ‘dsn’ configuration setting, as if you’re using the driver’s underlying native PHP extension, like this:

// PDO
$db['default']['dsn'] = 'pgsql:host=localhost;port=5432;dbname=database_name';

// Oracle
$db['default']['dsn'] = '//localhost/XE';

Note

If you do not specify a DSN string for a driver that requires it, CodeIgniter will try to build it with the rest of the provided settings.

Note

If you provide a DSN string and it is missing some valid settings (e.g. the database character set), which are present in the rest of the configuration fields, CodeIgniter will append them.

You can also specify failovers for the situation when the main connection cannot connect for some reason. These failovers can be specified by setting the failover for a connection like this:

$db['default']['failover'] = array(
                array(
                        'hostname' => 'localhost1',
                        'username' => '',
                        'password' => '',
                        'database' => '',
                        'dbdriver' => 'mysqli',
                        'dbprefix' => '',
                        'pconnect' => TRUE,
                        'db_debug' => TRUE,
                        'cache_on' => FALSE,
                        'cachedir' => '',
                        'char_set' => 'utf8',
                        'dbcollat' => 'utf8_general_ci',
                        'swap_pre' => '',
                        'encrypt' => FALSE,
                        'compress' => FALSE,
                        'stricton' => FALSE
                ),
                array(
                        'hostname' => 'localhost2',
                        'username' => '',
                        'password' => '',
                        'database' => '',
                        'dbdriver' => 'mysqli',
                        'dbprefix' => '',
                        'pconnect' => TRUE,
                        'db_debug' => TRUE,
                        'cache_on' => FALSE,
                        'cachedir' => '',
                        'char_set' => 'utf8',
                        'dbcollat' => 'utf8_general_ci',
                        'swap_pre' => '',
                        'encrypt' => FALSE,
                        'compress' => FALSE,
                        'stricton' => FALSE
                )
        );

You can specify as many failovers as you like.

The reason we use a multi-dimensional array rather than a more simple one is to permit you to optionally store multiple sets of connection values. If, for example, you run multiple environments (development, production, test, etc.) under a single installation, you can set up a connection group for each, then switch between groups as needed. For example, to set up a “test” environment you would do this:

$db['test'] = array(
        'dsn'   => '',
        'hostname' => 'localhost',
        'username' => 'root',
        'password' => '',
        'database' => 'database_name',
        'dbdriver' => 'mysqli',
        'dbprefix' => '',
        'pconnect' => TRUE,
        'db_debug' => TRUE,
        'cache_on' => FALSE,
        'cachedir' => '',
        'char_set' => 'utf8',
        'dbcollat' => 'utf8_general_ci',
        'swap_pre' => '',
        'compress' => FALSE,
        'encrypt' => FALSE,
        'stricton' => FALSE,
        'failover' => array()
);

Then, to globally tell the system to use that group you would set this variable located in the config file:

$active_group = 'test';

Note

The name ‘test’ is arbitrary. It can be anything you want. By default we’ve used the word “default” for the primary connection, but it too can be renamed to something more relevant to your project.

Query Builder

The Query Builder Class is globally enabled or disabled by setting the $query_builder variable in the database configuration file to TRUE/FALSE (boolean). The default setting is TRUE. If you are not using the query builder class, setting it to FALSE will utilize fewer resources when the database classes are initialized.

$query_builder = TRUE;

Note

that some CodeIgniter classes such as Sessions require Query Builder to be enabled to access certain functionality.

Explanation of Values:

Name ConfigDescription
dsnThe DSN connect string (an all-in-one configuration sequence).
hostnameThe hostname of your database server. Often this is ‘localhost’.
usernameThe username used to connect to the database.
passwordThe password used to connect to the database.
databaseThe name of the database you want to connect to.
dbdriverThe database type. ie: mysqli, postgre, odbc, etc. Must be specified in lower case.
dbprefixAn optional table prefix which will added to the table name when running Query Builder queries. This permits multiple CodeIgniter installations to share one database.
pconnectTRUE/FALSE (boolean) – Whether to use a persistent connection.
db_debugTRUE/FALSE (boolean) – Whether database errors should be displayed.
cache_onTRUE/FALSE (boolean) – Whether database query caching is enabled, see also Database Caching Class.
cachedirThe absolute server path to your database query cache directory.
char_setThe character set used in communicating with the database.
dbcollatThe character collation used in communicating with the database NoteOnly used in the ‘mysql’ and ‘mysqli’ drivers.
swap_preA default table prefix that should be swapped with dbprefix. This is useful for distributed applications where you might run manually written queries, and need the prefix to still be customizable by the end user.
schemaThe database schema, defaults to ‘public’. Used by PostgreSQL and ODBC drivers.
encryptWhether or not to use an encrypted connection. ‘mysql’ (deprecated), ‘sqlsrv’ and ‘pdo/sqlsrv’ drivers accept TRUE/FALSE ‘mysqli’ and ‘pdo/mysql’ drivers accept an array with the following options: ‘ssl_key’ – Path to the private key file ‘ssl_cert’ – Path to the public key certificate file ‘ssl_ca’ – Path to the certificate authority file ‘ssl_capath’ – Path to a directory containing trusted CA certificates in PEM format ‘ssl_cipher’ – List of allowed ciphers to be used for the encryption, separated by colons (‘:’) ‘ssl_verify’ – TRUE/FALSE; Whether to verify the server certificate or not (‘mysqli’ only)
compressWhether or not to use client compression (MySQL only).
strictonTRUE/FALSE (boolean) – Whether to force “Strict Mode” connections, good for ensuring strict SQL while developing an application.
portThe database port number. To use this value you have to add a line to the database config array. $db[‘default’][‘port’] = 5432;

Note

Depending on what database platform you are using (MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc.) not all values will be needed. For example, when using SQLite you will not need to supply a username or password, and the database name will be the path to your database file. The information above assumes you are using MySQL.

December 28, 2018 in Learning, MySql

Database Quick Start: Example Code CodeIgniter

Database Quick Start: Example Code CodeIgniter

Database Quick Start: Example Code

The following page contains example code showing how the database class is used. For complete details please read the individual pages describing each function.

Initializing the Database Class

The following code loads and initializes the database class based on your configuration settings:

$this->load->database();

Once loaded the class is ready to be used as described below.

Note: If all your pages require database access you can connect automatically. See the connecting page for details.

Standard Query With Multiple Results (Object Version)

$query = $this->db->query('SELECT name, title, email FROM my_table');

foreach ($query->result() as $row)
{
        echo $row->title;
        echo $row->name;
        echo $row->email;
}

echo 'Total Results: ' . $query->num_rows();

The above result() function returns an array of objects. Example: $row->title

Standard Query With Multiple Results (Array Version)

$query = $this->db->query('SELECT name, title, email FROM my_table');

foreach ($query->result_array() as $row)
{
        echo $row['title'];
        echo $row['name'];
        echo $row['email'];
}
The above result_array() function returns an array of standard array indexes. Example: $row[‘title’]

Standard Query With Single Result

$query = $this->db->query('SELECT name FROM my_table LIMIT 1');
$row = $query->row();
echo $row->name;

The above row() function returns an object. Example: $row->name

Standard Query With Single Result (Array version)

$query = $this->db->query('SELECT name FROM my_table LIMIT 1');
$row = $query->row_array();
echo $row['name'];

The above row_array() function returns an array. Example: $row[‘name’]

Standard Insert

$sql = "INSERT INTO mytable (title, name) VALUES (".$this->db->escape($title).", ".$this->db->escape($name).")";
$this->db->query($sql);
echo $this->db->affected_rows();

Query Builder Query

The Query Builder Pattern gives you a simplified means of retrieving data:

$query = $this->db->get('table_name');

foreach ($query->result() as $row) { echo $row->title; }

The above get() function retrieves all the results from the supplied table. The Query Builder class contains a full compliment of functions for working with data.

Query Builder Insert

$data = array(
        'title' => $title,
        'name' => $name,
        'date' => $date
);

$this->db->insert('mytable', $data);  // Produces: INSERT INTO mytable (title, name, date) VALUES ('{$title}', '{$name}', '{$date}')

December 18, 2018 in MySql, Tips and Tricks

Use multiple databases in OpenCart

Use multiple databases in OpenCart

To use multiple databases in OpenCart (1.5.*), just update 3 files as given below:

  1. Config.php:
    Add:

     //New DB

    define(‘NEWDB_DRIVER’, ‘mysql’);
    define(‘NEWDB_HOSTNAME’, ‘localhost’);
    define(‘NEWDB_USERNAME’, ‘root’);
    define(‘NEWDB_PASSWORD’, ‘password’);
    define(‘NEWDB_DATABASE’, ‘sitename_newdb’);
    define(‘NEWDB_PREFIX’, ‘ndb’);
  2. Index.php:
    Below the current database setup ($db = new DB(DB_DRIVER …) add:

     $newdb = new DB(NEWDB_DRIVER, NEWDB_HOSTNAME, NEWDB_USERNAME, NEWDB_PASSWORD, NEWDB_DATABASE);

    $registry->set(‘newdb’, $newdb );
  3. system/database/mysql.php:
    Modify:

     change:

    if (!$this->link = mysql_connect($hostname, $username, $password)) {
    to:
    if (!$this->link = mysql_connect($hostname, $username, $password, true)) {

After these above steps we can access the new database by:

$this->newdb->query("SELECT * FROM ". NEWDB_PREFIX . "users");

December 18, 2018 in Laravel, MySql, Tips and Tricks

multiple database connection in laravel

multiple database connection in laravel

.env file

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=database1 //database first
DB_DATABASE_OPENCART=database2    // database second
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=aaaa@#2233

config/database

‘mysql’ => [
‘driver’ => ‘mysql’,
‘host’ => env(‘DB_HOST’, ‘localhost’),
‘port’ => env(‘DB_PORT’, ‘3306’),
‘database’ => env(‘DB_DATABASE’, ‘database1’),
‘username’ => env(‘DB_USERNAME’, ‘root’),
‘password’ => env(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘aaaa@#2233’),
‘charset’ => ‘utf8’,
‘collation’ => ‘utf8_unicode_ci’,
‘prefix’ => ”,
‘strict’ => false,
‘engine’ => null,
],
‘opencart’ => [
‘driver’ => ‘mysql’,
‘host’ => env(‘DB_HOST’, ‘localhost’),
‘port’ => env(‘DB_PORT’, ‘3306’),
‘database’ => env(‘DB_DATABASE_OPENCART’, ‘database2’),
‘username’ => env(‘DB_USERNAME’, ‘root’),
‘password’ => env(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘aaaa@#2233’),
‘charset’ => ‘utf8’,
‘collation’ => ‘utf8_unicode_ci’,
‘prefix’ => ”,
‘strict’ => false,
‘engine’ => null,
],

In Controller file

$db_ext = DB::connection(‘opencart’);
$countries = $db_ext->table(‘fit_cart’)->get();
print_r($countries);

November 25, 2018 in MySql, Tips and Tricks

List of Sql Injection code strings

List of Sql Injection code strings

‘ or 1=1–

” or 1=1–

or 1=1–

‘ or ‘a’=’a

” or “a”=”a

‘) or (‘a’=’a

“) or (“a”=”a

October 26, 2018 in MySql, News

advantages and disadvantages of amazon web services

advantages and disadvantages of amazon web services

The AWS bouquet of services includes the following:

  • Simple Storage Service – This covers archiving of application programs and data and online backup. The service is low cost, high speed and scalable.
  • CloudDrive – This lets users utilize web-connected devices to access and upload photos, music, documents, and videos. They can also use their devices to stream music.
  • RedShift – The service is designed for analytic workloads connecting with business intelligence tools and standard SQL based clients. It is a data warehouse service that handles petabyte-scale data.
  • CloudSearch – is used for the integration of customized search capabilities and is a scalable search service.
  • Mechanical Turk – This lets developers incorporate human intelligence in remote procedure calls. It is an application program interface (API) that uses a human network to carry out tasks that computers are not suitable for.
  • Dynamo Database – is a NoSQL database which is fully managed and known for its scalability and low latencies.
  • ElastiCache – is protocol-compliant with Memcached, which alleviates database load by speeding up dynamic web applications. Memcached is an open source and high performing distributed memory object caching system. ElastiCache is a fully managed caching service.
  • Elastic Compute Cloud – can be used as an unlimited number of virtual machines and lets business subscribers run app programs.

October 24, 2018 in MySql, Php, Tips and Tricks, Ubuntu

change password of phpmyadmin in ubuntu

change password of phpmyadmin in ubuntu

If you know your current password, you don’t have to stop mysql server. Open the ubuntu terminal. Login to mysql using:

mysql -u username -p

Then type your password. This will take you into the mysql console. Inside the console, type:

> ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password';

Then flush privileges using:

> flush privileges;

October 16, 2018 in Laravel, MySql, News, Php, Tips and Tricks, Ubuntu

INSTALL LARAVEL ON UBUNTU 17.04 / 17.10 WITH APACHE2, MARIADB AND PHP SUPPORT

INSTALL LARAVEL ON UBUNTU 17.04 / 17.10 WITH APACHE2, MARIADB AND PHP SUPPORT

Laravel is a flexible and lightweight open source PHP framework with Model-View Controller (MVC) design pattern. It can be a great alternative to CodeIgniter framework. Laravel is designed for ease of use to allow developers create great applications.

If you’re looking for a simple and straightforward PHP framework to design your next application, you’ll find Laravel to be useful. This brief tutorial is going to show students and new users how to install Laravel PHP framework on Ubuntu 17.04 / 17.10 with Apache2, MariaDB and PHP support.

To get started with installing Laravel, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Install Apache2

Laravel requires a webserver to function and the second most popular webserver in use today is Apache2. So, go and install Apache2 on Ubuntu by running the commands below:

sudo apt install apache2

Next, run the commands below to stop, start and enable Apache2 service to always start up with the server boots.

sudo systemctl stop apache2.service
sudo systemctl start apache2.service
sudo systemctl enable apache2.service

Step 2: Install MariaDB

Laravel also requires a database server… and MariaDB database server is a great place to start. To install it run the commands below.

sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client

After installing, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable MariaDB service to always start up when the server boots.

sudo systemctl stop mariadb.service
sudo systemctl start mariadb.service
sudo systemctl enable mariadb.service

After that, run the commands below to secure MariaDB server.

sudo mysql_secure_installation

When prompted, answer the questions below by following the guide.

  • Enter current password for root (enter for none): Just press the Enter
  • Set root password? [Y/n]: Y
  • New password: Enter password
  • Re-enter new password: Repeat password
  • Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y
  • Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y
  • Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]:  Y
  • Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]:  Y

Restart MariaDB server

sudo systemctl restart mariadb.service

Step 3: Install PHP And Related Modules

Laravel is based on PHP.. so you’ll need to install it. To install PHP and related modules run the commands below

sudo apt install php libapache2-mod-php php-common php-mbstring php-xmlrpc php-soap php-gd php-xml php-mysql php-cli php-mcrypt php-zip

After install PHP, run the commands below to open PHP-FPM default file.

sudo nano /etc/php/7.1/apache2/php.ini           # Ubuntu 17.10
sudo nano /etc/php/7.0/apache2/php.ini           # Ubuntu 17.04

Then make the change the following lines below in the file and save.

memory_limit = 256M
upload_max_filesize = 64M
cgi.fix_pathinfo=0

Step 4: Install Composer To Download Laravel

Run the commands below to install composer package and install.. you must have curl package installed for the commands to work.. if not, just run sudo apt install curl to install it…

curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | sudo php -- --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer

Change into Laravel directory and run the commands below to download and install Laravel for th e project you want to create… name the project whatever you want… for this post, we’re calling it MyProject..

cd /var/www/html
sudo composer create-project laravel/laravel MyProject --prefer-dist

After running the commands above, a new project directory will be created… Run the commands below to set the correct permissions for that directory..

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/MyProject/
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/MyProject/

Step 5: Configure Apache2

Finally, configure Apahce2 site configuration file for Laravel. This file will control how users access Laravel content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called laravel.conf

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/laravel.conf

Then copy and paste the content below into the file and save it. Replace the highlighted line with your own domain name and directory root location.

<VirtualHost *:80>   
  ServerAdmin admin@example.com
     DocumentRoot /var/www/html/MyProject/public
     ServerName example.com

     <Directory /var/www/html/MyProject/public>
        Options +FollowSymlinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
     </Directory>

     ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
     CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Save the file and exit.

Step 6: Enable The Laravel And Rewrite Module

After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below

sudo a2ensite laravel.conf
sudo a2enmod rewrite

Step 7: Restart Apache2

To load all the settings above, restart Apache2 by running the commands below.

sudo systemctl restart apache2.service



Then open your browser and browse to the server domain name. You should see Laravel page.

http://example.com

You should then see Laravel default home screen