Deploying Laravel 5.2 Project to Server

Question

I have two servers - local (laravel homestead in ubuntu desktop) and public (ubuntu server with php7) for my websites. I already have a few simple websites that works fine on my public server and they are visible to the net. I create laravel 5.2 project on my laravel Homestead local server and now I want to move it - deploy it to my public server. I compress complete project folder (tar.gz) and move it to server using filezilla and unpack and navigate domain DocumentRoot to the project index.php page in public folder but it's opening a blank page. If I make a change in index.php and echo some string, it's work and string is displayed but laravel bootstrap doesn't load application. My index.php is located in:

/var/www/html/mydomain.com/public/index.php

with this two line:

require __DIR__.'/../bootstrap/autoload.php';
$app = require_once __DIR__.'/../bootstrap/app.php';

and this:

$kernel = $app->make(Illuminate\Contracts\Http\Kernel::class);

$response = $kernel->handle(
    $request = Illuminate\Http\Request::capture()
);

$response->send();

$kernel->terminate($request, $response);

I try also with absolute path:

require '/var/www/html/mydomain.com/bootstrap/autoload.php';
$app = require_once '/var/www/html/mydomain.com/bootstrap/app.php';

But browser still opening blank page. Apache configuration file (/etc/apache2/sites-available/mydomain.com.conf) for this domain is created with this data:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin [email protected]
    ServerName mydomain.com
    ServerAlias www.mydomain.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/mydomain.com/public
    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

This is my first laravel project and I don't have experience with deploying it on server. Please, what setup and changes I need to do to make it works? Domain is navigated to the index.php page in public folder but browser doesn't loading aplication. Please some help.

Edit: Error log from apache:

[Sun Jul 10 21:38:26.082328 2016] [:error] [pid 18269] [client 192.168.1.7:41368] PHP Fatal error: Uncaught UnexpectedValueException: The stream or file "/var/www/html/mydomain.com/storage/logs/laravel.log" could not be opened: failed to open stream: Permission denied in /var/www/html/mydomain.com/vendor/monolog/monolog/src/Monolog/Handler/StreamHandler.php:87\nStack trace:\n#0 /var/www/html/mydomain.com/vendor/monolog/monolog/src/Monolog/Handler/AbstractProcessingHandler.php(37): Monolog\Handler\StreamHandler->write(Array)\n#1 /var/www/html/mydomain.com/vendor/monolog/monolog/src/Monolog/Logger.php(336): Monolog\Handler\AbstractProcessingHandler->handle(Array)\n#2 /var/www/html/mydomain.com/vendor/monolog/monolog/src/Monolog/Logger.php(615): Monolog\Logger->addRecord(400, Object(Symfony\Component\Debug\Exception\FatalErrorException), Array)\n#3 /var/www/html/mydomain.com/vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/Log/Writer.php(202): Monolog\Logger->error(Object(Symfony\Component\Debug\Exception\FatalErrorException), Array)\n#4 /var/www/html/mydomain.com/vendor/laravel/framework/ in /var/www/html/mydomain.com/vendor/monolog/monolog/src/Monolog/Handler/StreamHandler.php on line 87

There is nothing in laravel.log. I delete all old logs and load page again. Laravel.log is still empty. — Mirsad Batilovic
I modify index.php file with line: echo "This is my laravel project page"; And browser print this in view, but not application. — Mirsad Batilovic
You need to be able to see your actual apache error logs to decipher what's happening. Paste it here and you'll receive better help — Chibueze Opata

Cruzito Cruzito · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-10T22:40:44

You have to setup the permissions of your folders and files correctly. You can find a lot of info in this question. File permissions for Laravel 5 (and others)

Also why don't you use git to deploy your project? Make a repo and then you can clone your project on your server and when you update your site all you have to do is a git pull :) And if you realy want to do it the right way you can use a deploybot with Envoy. This way you can directly deploy from your local machine.

Deploying Laravel 5.2 Project to Server

1 Answers