Weave Code
Laravel Installer Laravel Package
froiden/laravel-installer
A web-based installation wizard for Laravel applications that walks users through environment setup, database configuration, and initial app setup without the command line—simplifying first-run onboarding for distributed PHP apps.
Installer for Laravel Apps
Frequently asked questions about Laravel Installer
- How do I install froiden/laravel-installer in a Laravel application?
- Require the package with Composer, then publish its config, views, and assets via the vendor:publish command so the installer routes, controllers, and Blade views land in your app. The package registers a service provider and a route group that exposes the multi-step wizard (welcome, requirements, permissions, environment, database, admin user, finish) at the /install path. After publishing, visit /install in the browser and walk through the steps. Because it mutates .env and runs migrations, treat it as a distribution-time artifact rather than a normal runtime dependency.
- Which Laravel and PHP versions does froiden/laravel-installer support?
- Check the composer.json constraints in the tagged release you plan to use, because that is the only authoritative answer. The last release was in August 2024, so Laravel 12 and PHP 8.3+ support is unproven and you should assume you may need to fork and patch the package. Verify your full minimum support matrix on a branch before committing, and pin the version in composer.json. If your matrix is newer than the package, budget time for a fork.
- How do I secure the Laravel installer so /install is not publicly accessible in production?
- An exposed installer is a serious risk: it can rewrite database credentials and create an administrator account for anyone who reaches it. Design the gate rather than assuming it: an environment flag, a lock file written after successful install, an IP allowlist, and route removal at build time. Prefer excluding the installer from the production artifact entirely instead of relying on a runtime check. Also confirm no other package registers conflicting /install routes or modifies the web middleware group.
- Can I add custom installer steps such as license key validation, an SMTP test, or demo data seeding?
- Yes, but it means forking views and controllers rather than flipping a config switch. The published config covers requirement checks, permission checks, and some extra steps, while anything more specific requires editing the step controllers and Blade templates. Plan for extra time beyond basic wiring, since the customization and the security gate are the real cost of this package. Keep your custom steps in your own namespace so future upstream changes are easier to merge.
- What happens if the installation fails halfway through with froiden/laravel-installer?
- A failure between writing the .env file and running migrations can leave a half-installed application, and the package does not ship a documented recovery path. Make the steps as idempotent as you can, back up .env and the database before running the wizard, and write down a manual recovery procedure for support staff. Test the failure cases deliberately, such as an unreachable database or an unwritable .env. If recovery cannot be made predictable, drop the wizard and ship a CLI command instead.
- Why is my .env file written incorrectly when the database password contains special characters?
- Writing environment files over HTTP is inherently fragile, and characters like #, =, spaces, quotes, and unicode often break naive writers. Test your wizard with adversarial values before shipping, and patch the environment writer if quoting or escaping is insufficient. Remember that a stale config cache after the write can also make a correct .env appear broken, so clear the cache at the end of the step. Wrap values in quotes where the parser requires it.
- Does froiden/laravel-installer work with Docker, read-only filesystems, or Laravel Octane?
- Not well. The package assumes a single-tenant instance with a writable application root and a writable .env, which conflicts with immutable container images, read-only root filesystems, serverless environments, and autoscaling fleets where each replica has ephemeral disk. It also assumes the database is unreachable at first boot and that an unauthenticated route can exist until a lock condition is met. If your platform manages configuration, this installer is dead weight and a CLI command or environment variables are the better fit.
- How do I write automated tests for the Laravel web installer?
- Use HTTP tests that walk each step in order against a scratch .env file and a test database, asserting the expected redirect and the resulting file contents. Cover the failure paths too: unwritable paths, missing PHP extensions, invalid database credentials, and special characters in secrets. Assert that the lock condition is respected and that /install returns a non-200 response after completion. A small test harness around the steps is worth more than testing the views themselves.
- Is froiden/laravel-installer still maintained, and what are the alternatives?
- It has roughly 108 stars, a single-vendor release cadence tied to Froiden's commercial products, and a last release dated August 2024, so the bus factor is thin. It descends from the widely used rashidlaasri/laravel-installer lineage, which is the most common alternative and a reasonable migration source. Assume you own forks and patches for anything long-lived. If you deploy your own application rather than distributing a zip to customers, a custom Artisan command is usually a better choice than any web installer.
- How do I fix permission or requirement check failures during installation?
- The wizard checks that storage, the bootstrap cache directory, and the .env file are writable by the PHP process user, plus required PHP extensions and versions. Failures usually mean the web server user differs from your SSH user, or that files are owned by the wrong account, so chmod or chown accordingly and re-run the check. Confirm .env actually exists before the environment step, since some hosts do not ship one. If a requirement cannot be satisfied on your host, adjust the published config checks rather than editing vendor files.
Weaver
How can I help you explore Laravel packages today?