MediPro uses a standard Laravel .env file to manage all environment configuration. This page documents every variable, how to get your local environment running, and how to run tests.
Prerequisites
Before starting, ensure you have the following installed:
| Requirement | Minimum version |
|---|
| PHP | 8.2+ |
| Composer | 2.x |
| Node.js | 18+ |
| npm | 9+ |
Quick setup
The composer setup script handles the full initial setup in one command:
This script runs the following steps in sequence:
composer install — installs PHP dependencies- Copies
.env.example to .env if no .env file exists
php artisan key:generate — generates APP_KEYphp artisan migrate --force — runs all database migrationsnpm install — installs Node dependenciesnpm run build — compiles front-end assets
Never run composer setup in production. It is intended for local development only. Production deployments require a separate, carefully controlled process — see the Deployment guide. Running the development server
Once set up, start all development services with:
This uses npx concurrently to run four processes simultaneously:
npx concurrently \
-c "#93c5fd,#c4b5fd,#fb7185,#fdba74" \
"php artisan serve" \
"php artisan queue:listen --tries=1" \
"php artisan pail --timeout=0" \
"npm run dev" \
--names=server,queue,logs,vite \
--kill-others
| Process name | Command | Purpose |
|---|
server | php artisan serve | PHP built-in web server on port 8000 |
queue | php artisan queue:listen --tries=1 | Processes queued jobs in real time |
logs | php artisan pail --timeout=0 | Streams application logs to the terminal |
vite | npm run dev | Vite HMR dev server for CSS/JS assets |
--kill-others shuts down the rest.
The .env file
Copy .env.example to .env and fill in values for your environment:
cp .env.example .env
php artisan key:generate
.env.example are shown below for reference:
APP_NAME=Laravel
APP_ENV=local
APP_KEY=
APP_DEBUG=true
APP_URL=http://localhost
APP_LOCALE=en
APP_FALLBACK_LOCALE=en
APP_FAKER_LOCALE=en_US
APP_MAINTENANCE_DRIVER=file
# APP_MAINTENANCE_STORE=database
# PHP_CLI_SERVER_WORKERS=4
BCRYPT_ROUNDS=12
LOG_CHANNEL=stack
LOG_STACK=single
LOG_DEPRECATIONS_CHANNEL=null
LOG_LEVEL=debug
DB_CONNECTION=sqlite
# DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
# DB_PORT=3306
# DB_DATABASE=laravel
# DB_USERNAME=root
# DB_PASSWORD=
SESSION_DRIVER=database
SESSION_LIFETIME=120
SESSION_ENCRYPT=false
SESSION_PATH=/
SESSION_DOMAIN=null
BROADCAST_CONNECTION=log
FILESYSTEM_DISK=local
QUEUE_CONNECTION=database
CACHE_STORE=database
# CACHE_PREFIX=
MEMCACHED_HOST=127.0.0.1
REDIS_CLIENT=phpredis
REDIS_HOST=127.0.0.1
REDIS_PASSWORD=null
REDIS_PORT=6379
MAIL_MAILER=log
MAIL_SCHEME=null
MAIL_HOST=127.0.0.1
MAIL_PORT=2525
MAIL_USERNAME=null
MAIL_PASSWORD=null
MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS="[email protected]"
MAIL_FROM_NAME="${APP_NAME}"
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=
AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=us-east-1
AWS_BUCKET=
AWS_USE_PATH_STYLE_ENDPOINT=false
VITE_APP_NAME="${APP_NAME}"
Environment variable reference
App
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|
APP_NAME | Laravel | Application name. Used in UI and email templates via APP_NAME. |
APP_ENV | local | Current environment. Use local, staging, or production. |
APP_KEY | (empty) | 32-character encryption key. Must be generated before first run. |
APP_DEBUG | true | Shows detailed error pages when true. Set to false in production. |
APP_URL | http://localhost | Canonical base URL. Used for generating absolute links. |
APP_LOCALE | en | Default locale for translations. |
APP_FALLBACK_LOCALE | en | Locale to fall back to if a translation key is missing. |
APP_FAKER_LOCALE | en_US | Locale used by Faker when generating fake data in tests and seeders. |
APP_MAINTENANCE_DRIVER | file | How maintenance mode state is stored. file or database. |
BCRYPT_ROUNDS | 12 | Cost factor for password hashing. Lower values speed up tests. |
Always run php artisan key:generate after copying .env.example. Laravel will refuse to serve requests if APP_KEY is empty.
Logging
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|
LOG_CHANNEL | stack | Default log channel. stack aggregates multiple channels. |
LOG_STACK | single | Channels included in the stack channel. |
LOG_DEPRECATIONS_CHANNEL | null | Channel for PHP/framework deprecation notices. |
LOG_LEVEL | debug | Minimum severity to log. Options: debug, info, warning, error, critical. |
Database
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|
DB_CONNECTION | sqlite | Database driver. Options: sqlite, mysql, pgsql. |
DB_HOST | 127.0.0.1 | Database server hostname (MySQL/PostgreSQL only). |
DB_PORT | 3306 | Database server port (MySQL/PostgreSQL only). |
DB_DATABASE | laravel | Database name (or SQLite file path). |
DB_USERNAME | root | Database username (MySQL/PostgreSQL only). |
DB_PASSWORD | (empty) | Database password (MySQL/PostgreSQL only). |
For local development, leave DB_CONNECTION=sqlite. Laravel will automatically use database/database.sqlite, which requires no database server. Run touch database/database.sqlite if the file does not exist yet.
Session
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|
SESSION_DRIVER | database | Where sessions are stored. Options: database, file, cookie, redis. |
SESSION_LIFETIME | 120 | Minutes before an idle session expires. |
SESSION_ENCRYPT | false | Encrypt session payload at rest when true. |
SESSION_PATH | / | Cookie path scope. |
SESSION_DOMAIN | null | Cookie domain scope. null uses the current domain. |
Broadcasting, filesystem, and queue
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|
BROADCAST_CONNECTION | log | Broadcast driver. log writes events to the log instead of broadcasting. |
FILESYSTEM_DISK | local | Default storage disk. |
QUEUE_CONNECTION | database | Queue driver. database uses the jobs table. |
Cache
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|
CACHE_STORE | database | Cache backend. Options: database, file, redis, array. |
CACHE_PREFIX | (empty) | Optional string prepended to all cache keys to avoid collisions. |
MEMCACHED_HOST | 127.0.0.1 | Memcached server host (only used when CACHE_STORE=memcached). |
Redis
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|
REDIS_CLIENT | phpredis | PHP Redis extension to use. phpredis or predis. |
REDIS_HOST | 127.0.0.1 | Redis server hostname. |
REDIS_PASSWORD | null | Redis authentication password. |
REDIS_PORT | 6379 | Redis server port. |
Mail
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|
MAIL_MAILER | log | Mail driver. log writes emails to the log — no real emails are sent. |
MAIL_SCHEME | null | Transport encryption scheme (tls, ssl, or null). |
MAIL_HOST | 127.0.0.1 | SMTP server hostname. |
MAIL_PORT | 2525 | SMTP server port. |
MAIL_USERNAME | null | SMTP authentication username. |
MAIL_PASSWORD | null | SMTP authentication password. |
MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS | [email protected] | Default sender address. |
MAIL_FROM_NAME | ${APP_NAME} | Default sender display name. |
AWS / S3
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID | (empty) | AWS IAM access key ID. |
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY | (empty) | AWS IAM secret access key. |
AWS_DEFAULT_REGION | us-east-1 | AWS region for S3 and other services. |
AWS_BUCKET | (empty) | S3 bucket name for the s3 filesystem disk. |
AWS_USE_PATH_STYLE_ENDPOINT | false | Use path-style S3 URLs (required for MinIO and some S3-compatible stores). |
Vite
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|
VITE_APP_NAME | ${APP_NAME} | Exposes the application name to front-end JavaScript. |
Running tests
Run the full test suite with:
This runs:
php artisan config:clear && php artisan test
PHPUnit configuration
Test environment overrides are defined in phpunit.xml. The test suite uses in-memory SQLite so no database setup is needed:
<php>
<env name="APP_ENV" value="testing"/>
<env name="APP_MAINTENANCE_DRIVER" value="file"/>
<env name="BCRYPT_ROUNDS" value="4"/>
<env name="BROADCAST_CONNECTION" value="null"/>
<env name="CACHE_STORE" value="array"/>
<env name="DB_CONNECTION" value="sqlite"/>
<env name="DB_DATABASE" value=":memory:"/>
<env name="MAIL_MAILER" value="array"/>
<env name="QUEUE_CONNECTION" value="sync"/>
<env name="SESSION_DRIVER" value="array"/>
</php>
| Suite | Directory | Purpose |
|---|
Unit | tests/Unit | Isolated unit tests with no framework boot |
Feature | tests/Feature | Full HTTP/feature tests against a booted application |
php artisan test --testsuite=Unit
php artisan test --testsuite=Feature
