Running your first laravel project

NatureNature
3 min read

Table of contents

🛠️ How to Create & Run Your First Laravel Project (Step-by-Step Guide)

✅ Step 1: Install Laravel

⚠️ You must have Composer and PHP (8.1 or higher) already installed.

If not installed:

You can check using:

php -v
composer -v

✅ Step 2: Create Your First Project

Open Command Prompt or Terminal, then run:

laravel new my-app

  • my-app is your project name. You can use any name, e.g., laravel-blog, my-store, etc.

  • This command downloads Laravel and sets up the whole folder structure.

If laravel command doesn’t work, install Laravel globally:

composer global require laravel/installer
or
composer create-project --prefer-dist laravel/laravel project-name

🔄 It might ask for:

  • Database: choose MySQL

  • Testing: choose Pest or PHPUnit

  • Frontend stack: pick whatever is recommended or skip for now

✅ Step 3: Open Project in VS Code

Go to the folder:

cd my-app

Now open it in VS Code: The below command will open your current project in VS code

code .

✅ Step 4: Run the Project

In the VS Code open terminal or any command prompt, run:

php artisan serve

✅ This will start a development server at:

http://127.0.0.1:8000

Open that URL in your browser. You will see the Laravel welcome page.

✅ Step 5: How is the Welcome Page Working?

Here’s how Laravel connects everything:

🧩 routes/web.php

This file contains route definitions.

Default route looks like:

Route::get('/', function () {
    return view('welcome');
});

  • / means homepage.

  • It means that whenever you write “/” in your url and enter it will return you the page mentioned in this view('welcome').

  • It returns the view called welcome.

🧩 resources/views/welcome.blade.php

This is the HTML file you see in the browser. You can edit this file and refresh the browser to see changes.

📁 File Structure (Relevant for First Project)

File/FolderPurpose
routes/web.phpWhere you define website routes
resources/views/Where you create HTML-like files (.blade.php)
app/Http/Controllers/Where you will write your logic (later)
.envStore DB connection, app URL, keys etc
php artisan serveCommand to run Laravel app

🧪 Example:

Let’s say you want to make a new page called about.

  1. Create a new file: resources/views/about.blade.php

     <!DOCTYPE html>
 <html>
 <head><title>About Page</title></head>
 <body>
     <h1>About Laravel Project</h1>
 </body>
 </html>

  2. Add this in web.php:

Route::get('/about', function () {
    return view('about');
});
  1. Now open your browser and visit:
    👉 http://127.0.0.1:8000/about

You'll see your new page!

🔚 Summary

StepWhat You Do
1️⃣Install Laravel
2️⃣Create Project (laravel new my-app)
3️⃣Open in VS Code
4️⃣Run with php artisan serve
5️⃣Visit localhost:8000 to see welcome page
6️⃣Learn routing, views, and customize your pages
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