====== Laravel Notes ======

5/30/2016 Deciding to move to Laravel, partially at Michanel Hanes recommendation, also because I read that CakePhp is now old and not being supported much.

  * https://laravel.com
  * http://dancoivan/laravelcheatsheet/ (Local copy of Laravel 5.1 Cheat Sheet app)
  * [[eloquent|Eloquent Database Interaction Notes]]

Installed Laravel **5.2.34**

5/30/2016 Setting up workstation. Installed Composer to workstation, by opening XAMPP console, and running these lines:

(Check this location because the installation lines below will change: https://getcomposer.org/download/)

<code>
php -r "copy('https://getcomposer.org/installer', 'composer-setup.php');"
php -r "if (hash_file('SHA384', 'composer-setup.php') === '070854512ef404f16bac87071a6db9fd9721da1684cd4589b1196c3faf71b9a2682e2311b36a5079825e155ac7ce150d') { echo 'Installer verified'; } else { echo 'Installer corrupt'; unlink('composer-setup.php'); } echo PHP_EOL;"
php composer-setup.php
php -r "unlink('composer-setup.php');"
</code>

This worked. I can run composer with this:

  php composer.phar
  
Now I can install laravel:

  php composer.phar global require "laravel/installer"
  
It installed into c:\Users\dan\AppData\Roaming\Composer\Vender\bin

  laravel new cantata3
  
BAD: It created a partially complete (missing vendor directory) project cantata3 under c:\Users\dan\AppData\Roaming\Composer\Vender\bin. Noticed when it ran it complained about missing the command "composer". So I reran again with this command instead:

Using the XAMPP shell tool, ran this:

  php composer.phar create-project --prefer-dist laravel/laravel cantata3
  
Which appears to have obtained laraval again, and also created a better version of cantata3.

===== Moving to WorkspacePHP =====

In EclipsePHP, created new PHP project "cantata3", then copied generated content from the laravel step into the Eclipse canata3 directory.

**Running Artisan**

Noticed that there is an "artisan" file at the root of the project created by the steps above. The Laravel docs show commands like ''php artisan list'' but these need to be run from the root of the project.

In the Shell of XAMPP, do this to verify artisan commands:

  cd c:\Users\dan\workspacePHP\cantata3
  php artisan list

To create the Users table, ran this:

  php artisan migrate:refresh
 
This ran the class under database/migrations

==== Making Models/Database Tables ====

  php artisan make:model FileMeta -m
  
You create the migration file, edit it, and run with

  php artisan migrate

This will create a PHP class in the Models directory.



===== YouTube Tutorial =====

Listened to "Website Builder" Laravel 5 tutorial. He made it very clear, and seems to be using Laravel 5.2 Also listened to others regarding Laravel 5.0, but it appears that the "best practices" may have changed>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66LpDiStY5w

Max (the presenter) recommended http://c9.io as a development environment provider. From the notes above, I set it up on my PC. Assumedly it works OK for either. 6/16/2016

===== VirtualBox-Vagrant Installation =====

Why use VirtualBox-Vagrant? Explanation: https://www.sitepoint.com/re-introducing-vagrant-right-way-start-php/

Following the instructions here: https://laravel.com/docs/5.2/homestead#installation-and-setup

  * Installed Oracle VM VirtualBox
  * Installaed Vagrant, but no clue it is installed
  * ran this from Windows CMD: ''vagrant box add laravel/homestead'' (8/12/2016 4:43 p.m.)
  * Installed git from https://git-scm.com/download
  * Ran from inside of a Git window
<code bash>
cd ~
git clone https://github.com/laravel/homestead.git Homestead
</code>

then
<code bash>
cd ~/Homestead (probably actually cd \Users\dan\Homestead)
./init.sh
</code>

There are two important areas, one is the ''\Users\dan\Homestead'' directory, the other is inside of the ''\Users\dan\.homestead'' directory (containing Homestead.yaml).

The idea here is that there is a virtual machine with PHP, MySQL, and Laravel running. But we access it with virtual directories, not directly. There is also a way to virtually SSH to the running box.

To start Vagrant:

<code>
cd \Users\dan\Homestead
vagrant up
</code>

The command ''vagrant ssh'' didn't work, so tried putty. There was a recommended key at this location:

    Private key: C:/Users/dan/Homestead/.vagrant/machines/default/virtualbox/private_key
    
But it doesn't work with putty. Instead, logged in with vagrant:vagrant then changed password to a usual value.

Helped get the folders setting correct:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/29143680/understanding-the-homestead-yaml-file-in-laravel

8/29/2016

==== Connecting to the Vagrant App with a Browser ====

The file ''Homestead.yaml'' contains this part, which exposes "public" with a NGinx web server. I have to map "cantata3" to 192.168.10.10. 9/22/2016

I added this to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc:

<code>
192.168.10.10    cantata3
</code>

I was able to ''ping cantata3'' and get a response. However, visiting ''cantata3/test.htm'' gave **No input file specified.** - not sure why 9/22/2016

  * NGinx primer - https://blog.martinfjordvald.com/2010/07/nginx-primer/
  * How to solve No Input File Specified problem - https://blog.martinfjordvald.com/2011/01/no-input-file-specified-with-php-and-nginx/

Found these instructions (here: https://laravel.com/docs/5.3/homestead), which fixed the problem: 

//If you change the sites property after provisioning the Homestead box, you should re-run //
<code>
vagrant reload --provision
</code>
//to update the Nginx configuration on the virtual machine.//