Setting Up Laravel with Docker and Docker-compose

Laravel, a popular PHP framework, provides a great ecosystem for web application development. Docker, on the other hand, is a tool designed to make it easier to create, deploy, and run applications using containers. By combining these technologies, developers can enjoy the benefits of a consistent development environment and simplified deployment process.

In this article, we will walk you through setting up a Laravel application with Docker using Docker-compose.

Prerequisites

• Docker installed on your system.
• Docker-compose installed on your system.
• Basic understanding of Docker concepts such as images, containers, and Dockerfile.

Step 1: Setting up Laravel

Start by creating a new Laravel project or navigating to your existing project.

composer create-project --prefer-dist laravel/laravel my-laravel-app 
cd my-laravel-app 

Step 2: Create a Dockerfile

The Dockerfile contains instructions to Docker for building your app’s environment.

Let’s create a file named Dockerfile in your project root directory and add the following:

FROM php:8.1-fpm

# Install system dependencies
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y libpng-dev libjpeg-dev libfreetype6-dev zip git curl unzip

# Install PHP extensions
RUN docker-php-ext-configure gd --with-freetype --with-jpeg
RUN docker-php-ext-install gd pdo pdo_mysql

# Get Composer
COPY --from=composer:latest /usr/bin/composer /usr/bin/composer

# Set working directory
WORKDIR /var/www

# Copy existing application directory
COPY . .

# Install Laravel dependencies
RUN composer install

CMD ["php-fpm"]

EXPOSE 9000

Step 3: Docker-compose Configuration

Docker-compose helps in defining and running multi-container Docker applications. Create a docker-compose.yml file in the project root:

version: '3'

services:

  # PHP Service
  app:
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile
    image: my-laravel-app
    container_name: app
    restart: unless-stopped
    tty: true
    working_dir: /var/www
    volumes:
      - ./:/var/www
      - ./storage:/var/www/storage
    networks:
      - app-network

  # MySQL Service
  database:
    image: mysql:5.7.22
    container_name: database
    restart: unless-stopped
    tty: true
    ports:
      - "4306:3306"
    environment:
      MYSQL_DATABASE: laravel
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: root_password
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: password
      MYSQL_USER: user
    networks:
      - app-network

  # Nginx Service
  webserver:
    image: nginx:alpine
    container_name: webserver
    restart: unless-stopped
    tty: true
    ports:
      - "8000:80"
    volumes:
      - ./:/var/www
      - ./nginx:/etc/nginx/conf.d
    networks:
      - app-network

# Networks Configuration
networks:
  app-network:
    driver: bridge
 

Step 4: Nginx Configuration

The Docker-compose uses Nginx web server for running the application.

Create a new folder nginx in your project root. Inside, create a file named default.conf with the following content:

server {
    listen 80;
    index index.php index.html;
    server_name localhost;
    error_log  /var/log/nginx/error.log;
    access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
    root /var/www/public;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        try_files $uri =404;
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
        fastcgi_pass app:9000;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info;
    }
}
 

Step 5: Start the Docker Containers

With everything set up, start your containers:

docker-compose up -d 

Once the containers are up, you can visit http://localhost:8000 in your browser to view your Laravel application.

Step 6: Cleanup

To stop the services, you can use:

docker-compose down 

Conclusion

By integrating Laravel with Docker and Docker-compose, developers can ensure a consistent environment throughout development, testing, and production stages. This not only eases the deployment process but also eradicates the common “it works on my machine” problem. As you become more accustomed to Docker, you can further enhance and customize this setup to suit your specific needs.