Creating Your First Laravel Project

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Directory Structure(DOCUMENTATION)Directory Structure(DOCUMENTATION)

Introduction

With PHP and Composer in place, you can scaffold a full Laravel application in seconds. This lesson walks through laravel new, tours the generated directory layout, and starts the development server so you can see your first page render.

Key Concepts

  • laravel new: The installer command that creates a fresh project with all defaults.
  • app/: Your application's models, controllers, and business logic.
  • routes/: Files that map URLs to controllers or closures.
  • resources/views/: Blade templates rendered as HTML.
  • .env: Environment-specific configuration that never goes in version control.

Real World Context

The directory layout Laravel generates is the same on every project on every team. Opening an unfamiliar Laravel repo feels immediately navigable — you always know where the models, routes, and views live, which is a huge cognitive shortcut.

Deep Dive

Let's create your first Laravel project and explore its structure. This hands-on experience will help you understand how Laravel organizes code.

Creating a New Project

With PHP, Composer, and the Laravel installer ready:

bash
# Create a new Laravel project
laravel new my-first-app

The installer will prompt you for several options:

  1. Starter Kit: Choose "No starter kit" for now (we'll explore these later)
  2. Testing Framework: Choose "Pest" or "PHPUnit"
  3. Database: Choose "SQLite" for simplicity
  4. Git Repository: Yes to initialize Git

Project Structure

Laravel generates this structure:

my-first-app/
├── app/                    # Application code
│   ├── Http/
│   │   ├── Controllers/    # Request handlers
│   │   └── Middleware/     # Request filters
│   ├── Models/             # Eloquent models
│   └── Providers/          # Service providers
├── bootstrap/              # Framework bootstrap
├── config/                 # Configuration files
├── database/
│   ├── factories/          # Model factories
│   ├── migrations/         # Database migrations
│   └── seeders/            # Database seeders
├── public/                 # Web root (index.php)
├── resources/
│   ├── css/                # CSS files
│   ├── js/                 # JavaScript files
│   └── views/              # Blade templates
├── routes/
│   ├── web.php             # Web routes
│   └── api.php             # API routes
├── storage/                # Logs, cache, uploads
├── tests/                  # Test files
├── vendor/                 # Composer packages
├── .env                    # Environment variables
├── artisan                 # CLI tool
├── composer.json           # PHP dependencies
└── package.json            # Node dependencies

Understanding Key Directories

app/

Contains your application code:

php
// app/Models/User.php - Eloquent model
class User extends Authenticatable
{
    // Model definition
}

// app/Http/Controllers/UserController.php
class UserController extends Controller
{
    public function index()
    {
        return view('users.index');
    }
}
config/

Configuration files for every aspect of Laravel:

config/
├── app.php         # Application settings
├── database.php    # Database connections
├── mail.php        # Email configuration
├── cache.php       # Caching settings
└── ...             # Many more
routes/

Defines how URLs map to controllers:

php
// routes/web.php
Route::get('/', function () {
    return view('welcome');
});

Route::get('/users', [UserController::class, 'index']);
resources/views/

Blade templates for HTML rendering:

blade
<!-- resources/views/welcome.blade.php -->
<html>
    <head>
        <title>Laravel</title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <h1>Welcome to Laravel!</h1>
    </body>
</html>

Starting the Development Server

Laravel includes a development server:

bash
cd my-first-app

# Start all services (server, queue, vite)
composer run dev

# Or just the PHP server
php artisan serve

You'll see:

   INFO  Server running on [http://127.0.0.1:8000].

  Press Ctrl+C to stop the server

Open http://127.0.0.1:8000 in your browser to see the Laravel welcome page!

The .env File

Laravel uses environment variables for configuration:

env
# .env
APP_NAME=Laravel
APP_ENV=local
APP_KEY=base64:...
APP_DEBUG=true
APP_URL=http://localhost

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

MAIL_MAILER=log

Important: Never commit .env to version control. Use .env.example as a template.

First Database Migration

Laravel comes with migrations for users and sessions:

bash
php artisan migrate

Output:

   INFO  Running migrations.

  0001_01_01_000000_create_users_table ............... 12.45ms DONE
  0001_01_01_000001_create_cache_table ............... 3.22ms DONE
  0001_01_01_000002_create_jobs_table ................ 8.91ms DONE

This creates the SQLite database and sets up the default tables.

Common Pitfalls

  1. Committing .env to git — It contains secrets. Laravel gitignores it by default; never remove that rule.
  2. Running php artisan serve in production — It is a dev server only. Production needs Nginx/FrankenPHP in front of PHP-FPM.

Best Practices

  1. Run composer run dev — It launches the PHP server, queue worker, and Vite asset build in one command.
  2. Copy .env.example to .env — Every collaborator starts from this template, so keep it accurate.

Summary

  • laravel new my-app creates a full Laravel project.
  • The directory layout separates code (app), routes, views, and config.
  • php artisan serve launches a local dev server at http://127.0.0.1:8000.
  • .env holds secrets and environment-specific configuration.
  • composer run dev runs server + queue + Vite in parallel.
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