Create an App

Start from Scratch

For new Laravel projects, you can choose to install either versions 9 or 10. When selecting your version, be sure that your Workspace container has the correct PHP version that is required by your application. By default, the PHP version in your Workspace will be the latest.

Install from GitHub

When installing a Laravel project from GitHub, you're free to install any application with any Laravel version. However, it's important to note that the Workspace container only supports PHP versions of 7.4 and up. It is possible for the Workspace container to support lower PHP versions by making changes outside of the UI, but it's not recommended. The best approach in this situation is to first make sure your application can be supported in an upgraded version of PHP, and then install it via AppIgnition.

The Hosts File

When creating your application, its name will be used to create the local domain name for accessing it. As an example, an application with a name of My Blog can be accessed on your machine through my-blog.test. However, this would require modifying your hosts file. During the installation of your application, AppIgnition will ask you if you'd like for it to make the change on your behalf, but you're free to perform this action yourself if you'd like.

Popup asking to change the hosts file

Plugins

Laravel has an incredibly rich ecosystem of plugins that can speed along your process of building a sophisticated and reliable application. When configuring your application in AppIgnition, you can choose to automatically add these plugins before its installation, or even after by selecting them under your application's details and performing a reinstall. While you're free to install them outside of AppIgnition, installing them through the UI enables other features you might want in your application.

  • Automatic formatting can run in your CI/CD pipeline with Laravel Pint.
  • Automatic linting can run in your CI/CD pipeline with PHPStan.
  • Acceptance tests can run in your CI/CD pipeline with Laravel Dusk.

Application plugins

CI/CD

One of the features of AppIgnition is it has the ability to generate configuration files for either GitHub or CircleCI workflows, thus providing you with immediate access to the many guardrails you'd want in a sustainable application. Since GitHub and CircleCI workflows have the ability to build and run Docker containers, you can ensure that your CI/CD pipeline has the same environment as yours and your team's. Depending on the containers and plugins you configure for your application, the following operations will be added to your CI/CD configuration files:

  • Run formatting on your PHP files
    • Requires the Laravel Pint plugin
  • Run PHPStan on your PHP files
    • Requires the PHPStan plugin
  • Run Unit & Feature tests
    • Can be ran with Code Coverage enabled when PCov or XDebug is installed in your Workspace container
  • Run Laravel Dusk tests
    • Requires the Laravel Dusk plugin and either the Selenium or SeleniARM container
    • Failed Dusk tests will automatically capture screenshots and upload them as artifacts to your workflows

{warning} Before running a reinstall of your applicaiton, be sure to commit any of your changes since your CI/CD configuration files might be modified.