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Documentation Index

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Smart Enviro Backend ships with a production-ready Dockerfile based on the official php:8.4-apache image. The build installs all system-level dependencies, compiles the PHP extensions required by Laravel (pdo_mysql, mbstring, exif, pcntl, bcmath, gd), enables Apache’s mod_rewrite module for clean URL routing, and sets the Apache document root to Laravel’s public/ directory. Composer dependencies are installed without dev packages using --no-dev --optimize-autoloader, and storage directories are pre-configured with the correct www-data ownership and 775 permissions.

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Environment Variables

Configure your .env (or equivalent secrets manager) with the following variables before starting any container.

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App

VariableDefaultDescription
APP_NAMELaravelHuman-readable application name.
APP_ENVlocalSet to production in live deployments.
APP_KEY(empty)Base-64 encryption key — generate with artisan key:generate.
APP_DEBUGtrueSet to false in production to suppress stack traces.
APP_URLhttp://localhostPublicly accessible base URL of the API.

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Database

VariableDefaultDescription
DB_CONNECTIONsqliteSet to mysql when using the MySQL container.
DB_HOST127.0.0.1Hostname of the MySQL service (e.g. mysql inside Sail).
DB_PORT3306MySQL port.
DB_DATABASElaravelName of the target database.
DB_USERNAMErootMySQL user.
DB_PASSWORD(empty)MySQL password.

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Redis

VariableDefaultDescription
REDIS_CLIENTphpredisPHP Redis driver — phpredis or predis.
REDIS_HOST127.0.0.1Hostname of the Redis service (e.g. redis inside Sail).
REDIS_PASSWORDnullRedis AUTH password; null disables authentication.
REDIS_PORT6379Redis port.

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Cache / Queue / Session

VariableDefaultDescription
CACHE_STOREdatabaseCache backend — switch to redis for better performance.
QUEUE_CONNECTIONdatabaseQueue driver — switch to redis for a dedicated queue.
SESSION_DRIVERdatabaseSession storage backend.

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Mail

VariableDefaultDescription
MAIL_MAILERlogMail transport — log writes to Laravel logs, use smtp in production.
MAIL_HOST127.0.0.1SMTP server hostname.
MAIL_PORT2525SMTP port.
MAIL_USERNAMEnullSMTP authentication username.
MAIL_PASSWORDnullSMTP authentication password.

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Laravel Sail (Development)

Laravel Sail orchestrates the app, MySQL 8.4, and Redis Alpine containers via Docker Compose. It is the recommended workflow for local development and staging environments.
1

Configure environment variables

Copy .env.example to .env and update the database and Redis credentials:
cp .env.example .env
At minimum, set DB_CONNECTION=mysql and uncomment and fill in DB_HOST, DB_PORT, DB_DATABASE, DB_USERNAME, and DB_PASSWORD.
2

Start all services

./vendor/bin/sail up -d
Sail starts three containers in the background. Services are exposed on the following host ports:
ServiceEnvironment variableDefault port
Laravel appAPP_PORT80
MySQL 8.4FORWARD_DB_PORT3306
Redis AlpineFORWARD_REDIS_PORT6379
Override any port by setting the corresponding variable in .env before running sail up.
3

Generate the application key

./vendor/bin/sail artisan key:generate
4

Run database migrations

./vendor/bin/sail artisan migrate
5

Verify health

./vendor/bin/sail ps
All three services should show a healthy status. If the MySQL container is still initialising, wait a few seconds and try again.

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Production Docker Build

Use the included Dockerfile to build a self-contained image suitable for any container platform (Docker Engine, ECS, Cloud Run, Fly.io, etc.). Build the image: 
docker build -t smart-enviro-backend .
Run the container: 
docker run -d -p 80:80 --env-file .env smart-enviro-backend
The Dockerfile does not run artisan migrate automatically. After starting the container, run migrations against your target database:
docker exec <container_id> php artisan migrate --force
In orchestrated environments (Kubernetes, ECS) this is best handled as an init container or a one-off task before the main container starts receiving traffic.

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Post-Deploy Checklist

1

Set production environment flags

Ensure the following values are set in your production .env or secrets manager:
APP_ENV=production
APP_DEBUG=false
APP_DEBUG=false prevents sensitive stack traces and configuration details from leaking in API error responses.
2

Run database migrations

php artisan migrate --force
The --force flag is required to bypass the interactive prompt that Laravel shows when running migrations in production.
3

Set storage permissions

The Dockerfile pre-sets permissions for storage/ and bootstrap/cache/, but if you mount a volume over these directories in production you may need to re-apply:
chown -R www-data:www-data storage bootstrap/cache
chmod -R 775 storage bootstrap/cache
4

Configure a queue worker

If you switch QUEUE_CONNECTION to redis, start a queue worker to process background jobs:
php artisan queue:work --tries=3
In production, manage this process with a supervisor such as Supervisor, systemd, or a sidecar container.

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Code Quality

Run the following commands before building a production image to ensure the codebase is correctly formatted and all tests pass. Auto-format with Laravel Pint: 
./vendor/bin/sail exec laravel.test ./vendor/bin/pint
Pint reformats PHP files to the project’s configured style rules. Commit any resulting changes before pushing. Run the Pest test suite: 
./vendor/bin/sail artisan test
All Feature and Unit tests must pass before a build is promoted to production. A failed test in CI should block the deployment pipeline.

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