Master Composer & Laravel: Step-by-Step Setup Guide for Beginners

What is Composer

Composer is a PHP dependency management tool that allows you to combine many small open‑source packages into a complete project. It replaces the old project‑level open‑source model where each library was distributed as a separate project.

Install Laravel

Use Composer to install the Laravel installer and create a new Laravel project:

composer global require "laravel/installer"

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

Check the Laravel version with:

laravel -v

Create a New Project

1. Enter the working directory

cd /data/www/

2. Create the project

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

This command creates a directory named blog. Running it a second time may cause the terminal to hang.

3. View the project files

subl .

4. Backend – composer.json

The composer.json file lists the project’s PHP dependencies; the require section shows that the project uses Laravel 5.5 and its transitive dependencies.

5. Frontend – package.json

The package.json file lists JavaScript dependencies managed by npm, such as axios for HTTP requests, cross‑env, and webpack. Note that the default Bootstrap configuration uses the Sass source /resources/assets/sass/app.scss.

6. Install npm packages

sudo apt install npm

npm i

After installation, all front‑end packages are placed in the generated node_modules directory.

7. Environment file

A .env file is generated automatically with the project’s environment configuration.

8. View the site in a browser

Add an entry to /etc/hosts: 127.0.1.1 l.blog.com Then open l.blog.com in a browser.

9. Nginx configuration

Test the Nginx configuration with: sudo nginx -t Edit the Nginx configuration directory (e.g., subl /usr/local/nginx/conf/nginx.conf) to add a server block that matches *.blog.com. The server root should point to /data/www/blog.com/public so that Nginx serves Laravel’s index.php. Important include files are enable-php.conf (PHP communication) and enable-laravel.conf (Laravel‑specific settings). Example location block:

location / {
    try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php$is_args$args;
}

Q&A

Q: unexpectedValueException: the stream or file “/data/www/blog.com/storage/logs/laravel.log” could not be opened: Permission denied A: The issue is related to file permissions. Fix it with: sudo chmod -R 777 . Note the capital “R”.

Q: The site keeps loading indefinitely (spinning) A: Open developer tools (F12) and check the Network tab. A request to fonts.googleapis.com is pending because the default view references the Raleway Google font. Remove or comment out the font reference in resources/views/welcome.blade.php or in /resources/assets/sass/app.scss where Bootstrap imports it. After commenting, recompile the assets with: npm run prod Q: Accessing l.blog.com shows the LNMP one‑click installer page A: The Nginx server block is not configured correctly. Edit /usr/local/nginx/conf/nginx.conf , add the proper server configuration, test with sudo nginx -t , then reload:

sudo nginx -s reload