Laravel 4 Uber-Quick-Start (With auth!) Guide

Here's how to get started really quickly with Laravel 4.

Here's what we'll accomplish:

Clone dev branch
Get Composer (dir=bin)
Composer install
File permissions
Config (Dev environment)
Database Config (User database)
Auth
- Routes
- Form
- Form submission
...
Profit

Copy-Pasta Time!

Setup:

// Clone into develop branch, set the remote name of the skeleton app to "laravel", rather than "origin"
$ git clone -b develop -o laravel https://github.com/laravel/laravel.git myproject
$ cd myproject
$ mkdir bin
$ curl -s https://getcomposer.org/installer | php -- --install-dir=bin
$ php bin/composer.phar install
...wait...

Config:

$ chmod -R 0777 app/storage
// This is simply setting your environment - bootstrap/start.php
$ find -name 'bootstrap/start.php' -print -exec sed -i 's/your-machine-name/localhost/g' {} \; # add machine-name to local env, for instance "localhost"
// Set up a local environment
$ mkdir app/config/local
$ cp app/config/database.php app/config/local/database.php

Edit config/local/database.php :

# Edit config/local/database.php to suit your needs
# Don't forget to actually create that DB you specify :D

Database Migration Setup:

// Create a migration file for table "users", tell Laravel we need logic to create the table
$ php artisan migrate:make create_users_table --table=users --create

Due to new changes, we need to define which fields are fillable in our Users model. Edit app/models/User.php and add the "fillable" array:

<?php

use Illuminate\Auth\UserInterface;
use Illuminate\Auth\Reminders\RemindableInterface;

class User extends Eloquent implements UserInterface, RemindableInterface {

/**
 * The database table used by the model.
 *
 * @var string
 */
protected $table = 'users';

/**
 * The attributes excluded from the model's JSON form.
 *
 * @var array
 */
protected $hidden = array('password');

// Add to the "fillable" array
 protected $fillable = array('email', 'password');

// Rest of class cut-off for brevity

Edit app/database/migrations/SOME_DATE_create_users_table.php:

public function up()
{
    Schema::create('users', function($table)
    {
        $table->increments('id');
        $table->string('email')->unique();
        $table->string('password');
        $table->timestamps();
    });
}

Seeding:

Edit app/database/seeds/DatabaseSeeder.php:

public function run()
{
    // Uncomment this line
    $this->call('UserTableSeeder');
}

Create User Table seeder file:

$ touch app/database/seeds/UserTableSeeder.php

Edit app/database/seeds/UserTableSeeder.php:

<?php

class UserTableSeeder extends Seeder {

    public function run()
    {
        DB::table('users')->delete();

        User::create(array(
            'email' => 'your@email.com',
            'password' => Hash::make('your_password')
        ));
    }
}

Create DB and seed it:

$ php bin/composer.phar dump-autoload
$ php artisan migrate --env=local
$ php artisan db:seed --env=local

Setup Auth filter and routes:

Edit app/filters.php:

Route::filter('auth', function()
{
    // Slight change to redirect to login route
    if (Auth::guest()) return Redirect::to('login');
});

Edit app/routes.php:

Route::get('/', array('before' => 'auth' ,function()
{
    return 'Hello, '.Auth::user()->email.'!';
}));

Route::get('/login', function()
{
    return View::make('login');
});

Route::post('/login', function()
{
    // Validation? Not in my quickstart!
    // No, but really, I'm a bad person for leaving that out
    Auth::attempt( ['email' => Input::get('email'), 'password' =>       Input::get('password')] );

    return Redirect::to('/');
});

Create login view:

$ touch app/views/login.php

Edit app/views/login.php: Grab that here.

And you're pretty much done. Head to your localhost, get redirected to your login form, and try logging in!

You should see:

'Hello, whatever@email.you.used.com!'

If you get an error try running:

$ chmod -R 0777 app/storage

again.

Fideloper