docker-compose-laravel

A pretty simplified Docker Compose workflow that sets up a LEMP network of containers for local Laravel development. You can view the full article that inspired this repo here.

Usage

To get started, make sure you have Docker installed on your system, and then clone this repository.

Next, navigate in your terminal to the directory you cloned this, and spin up the containers for the web server by running docker-compose up -d --build site.

After that completes, follow the steps from the src/README.md file to get your Laravel project added in (or create a new blank one).

Bringing up the Docker Compose network with site instead of just using up, ensures that only our site's containers are brought up at the start, instead of all of the command containers as well. The following are built for our web server, with their exposed ports detailed:

• nginx - :80
• mysql - :3306
• php - :9000
• redis - :6379
• mailhog - :8025

Three additional containers are included that handle Composer, NPM, and Artisan commands without having to have these platforms installed on your local computer. Use the following command examples from your project root, modifying them to fit your particular use case.

• docker-compose run --rm composer update
• docker-compose run --rm npm run dev
• docker-compose run --rm artisan migrate

Permissions Issues

If you encounter any issues with filesystem permissions while visiting your application or running a container command, try completing the following steps:

• Bring any container(s) down with docker-compose down
• Copy the .env.example file in the root of this repo to .env
• Modify the values in the .env file to match the user/group that the src directory is owned by on the host system
• Re-build the containers by running docker-compose build --no-cache

Then, either bring back up your container network or re-run the command you were trying before, and see if that fixes it.

Persistent MySQL Storage

By default, whenever you bring down the Docker network, your MySQL data will be removed after the containers are destroyed. If you would like to have persistent data that remains after bringing containers down and back up, do the following:

1. Create a mysql folder in the project root, alongside the nginx and src folders.
2. Under the mysql service in your docker-compose.yml file, add the following lines:

volumes:
  - ./mysql:/var/lib/mysql

Using BrowserSync with Laravel Mix

If you want to enable the hot-reloading that comes with Laravel Mix's BrowserSync option, you'll have to follow a few small steps. First, ensure that you're using the updated docker-compose.yml with the :3000 and :3001 ports open on the npm service. Then, add the following to the end of your Laravel project's webpack.mix.js file:

.browserSync({
    proxy: 'nginx',
    open: false,
    port: 3000,
});

From your terminal window at the project root, run the following command to start watching for changes with the npm container and its mapped ports:

docker-compose run --rm --service-ports npm run watch

That should keep a small info pane open in your terminal (which you can exit with Ctrl + C). Visiting localhost:3000 in your browser should then load up your Laravel application with BrowserSync enabled and hot-reloading active.

MailHog

The current version of Laravel (8 as of today) uses MailHog as the default application for testing email sending and general SMTP work during local development. Using the provided Docker Hub image, getting an instance set up and ready is simple and straight-forward. The service is included in the docker-compose.yml file, and spins up alongside the webserver and database services.

To see the dashboard and view any emails coming through the system, visit localhost:8025 after running docker-compose up -d site.