Setting Up a Laravel 10 Development Environment with Docker

With the growing trend of containerization in web development, Docker has become an indispensable tool for developers. Docker allows for seamless management of dependencies and environments, enabling developers to focus on coding. In this article, we’ll guide you through setting up a Laravel 10 development environment using Docker.

Prerequisites

Before starting, make sure the following are installed on your system:

• Docker: Visit Docker’s official website to download and install Docker Desktop.
• Docker Compose: Usually included with Docker Desktop, install separately if it’s not.
• Composer: PHP’s dependency manager, necessary to create a new Laravel project.

Step 1: Setup PHP Docker Environment

In the root of your project, create a file named Dockerfile. This file defines the configuration for our Docker container. Add the following content to your Dockerfile:

FROM php:8.0-fpm-alpine

ADD ./php/www.conf /usr/local/etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf

RUN addgroup -g 1000 laravel && adduser -G laravel -g laravel -s /bin/sh -D laravel

RUN mkdir -p /var/www/html

ADD ./src/ /var/www/html

RUN docker-php-ext-install pdo pdo_mysql

RUN chown -R laravel:laravel /var/www/html

This Dockerfile creates a Docker container with PHP 8.2 and all the necessary extensions to run a Laravel project.

Step 2: Create a Docker Compose File

In the root directory of your Laravel project, create a docker-compose.yml file. This file allows us to define and manage multi-container Docker applications. Insert the following content:

version: "3.9"

networks:
    laravel:
        name: laravel

services:

    nginx:
        build:
            context: .
            dockerfile: nginx.dockerfile
        depends_on:
            - php
            - mysql
        container_name: nginx
        ports:
            - 80:80
            - 443:443
        volumes:
            - ./src:/var/www/html
        networks:
            - laravel

    php:
        build:
            context: .
            dockerfile: php.dockerfile
        container_name: php
        volumes:
            - ./src:/var/www/html
        networks:
            - laravel

    mysql:
        image: mysql:8.0.27
        container_name: mysql
        ports:
            - 3306:3306
        volumes:
            - ./mysql:/var/lib/mysql
        environment:
            MYSQL_DATABASE: laraveldb
            MYSQL_USER: laravel
            MYSQL_PASSWORD: secret
            MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: secret
        networks:
            - laravel

    composer:
        image: composer:latest
        container_name: composer
        volumes:
            - ./src:/var/www/html
        working_dir: /var/www/html
        networks:
            - laravel

    artisan:
        build:
            context: .
            dockerfile: php.dockerfile
        container_name: artisan
        volumes:
            - ./src:/var/www/html
        working_dir: /var/www/html
        entrypoint: ['php', 'artisan']
        networks:
            - laravel

    npm:
        image: node:current-alpine
        container_name: npm
        volumes:
            - ./src:/var/www/html
        working_dir: /var/www/html
        entrypoint: ['npm']
        networks:
            - laravel

This docker-compose.yml file creates two services: one for PHP and one for Nginx. It also defines a Docker network that the two services use to communicate.

Step 3: Configure Nginx

Create an nginx directory at the root of your Laravel project and within it, create a conf.d directory. Inside conf.d, create an app.conf file and insert the following Nginx server configuration:

server {
    listen 80;
    index index.php index.html;
    server_name localhost;
    root /var/www/html/public;

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

    location ~ \.php$ {
        try_files $uri = 404;
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
        fastcgi_pass php: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 4: Build and Run the Docker Containers

Now, we’re ready to build and run our Docker containers. From the root directory of your Laravel project, run the following command:

docker-compose up -d --build

Step 5: Create a New Laravel 10 Project

We need to create a new Laravel 10 project. Navigate to the directory where you wish to create your project and run the following command:

docker-compose run --rm composer create-project laravel/laravel .

Congratulations! You’ve now successfully set up a Laravel 10 development environment with Docker and PHP 8.2. Your Laravel application is now accessible at http://localhost:80.

Access the Full Project

For the full project, feel free to visit my GitHub repository: https://github.com/vshloda/docker-laravel

Happy coding!