How to Install Laravel Framework in Windows

What is Laravel ?

Laravel is an opensource Framework for PHP 5.3 or above and written by Taylor Otwell which is licensed under the MIT License. This framework designed with expressive and elegant syntax also reduce programmer tasks in most web projects such as routing, session and caching. Laravel trying to combine the experiences of development in other languages, such as Ruby on Rails, ASP.NET, MVC and Sinatra.

Getting Started

Laravel is easy to be configured to develop a web application. In this section, I will explain what softwares and tools are needed for installing and configuring Laravel Framework in Windows. You need :

1. XAMPP for Windows which is containing PHP 5.3 or above and Mcrypt package. If you do not have it yet, you can download it from official site. 
 
2. Composer, is a dependency manager for PHP which means a tools for downloading needed PHP libraries instead you have to download them one by one. You can download composer from this link.

3. Laravel Package for Windows which can be downloaded from GitHub.

Instructions

1. First of all, you have to enable OpenSSL in PHP configuration which is located in C:\xampp\php\php.ini. If you found php.ini file, you may open it using notepad editor or notepad++ for better view.

Then, find this line ;extension=php_openssl.dll with click CTRL+F. Next, remove the mark (";") until it becomes extension=php_openssl.dll which means this line is enabled in your web server.

 

Go to your XAMPP Control Panel and restart your Apache Server with click Stop and click again when it comes to Start button.

2.  Next step, you have to install Composer and follow its instructions. Installation process is easy and just like install other program and click the Next button until it's finished.

3. Last, install Laravel package using composer through Command Prompt. But, you have to create laravel folder first in C:\xampp\htdocs\. So, it comes like this path C:\xampp\htdocs\laravel. After that, open your Command Prompt application and also run it as administrator. After it's opened, go to your laravel path with command prompt in C:\xampp\htdocs\laravel.

 

If you did it right, type this below command on your command prompt :

composer create-project laravel/laravel project-name --prefer-dist

You may change your project name with replacing this part : project-name. So it comes like this :

 

 After you hit ENTER button, what you have to do is waiting and do not close your command prompt application until it shows any information about installation progress. Because it needs quite long time to be completed and depends on your internet connection speed.

When installation progress is finished, you may check it by typing this URL address on your browser :

http://localhost/laravel/public

If you can see this page, so it indicates that your Laravel installation is done successfully.