Installation & Deployment Guide

1System requirements

2Quick start (5 minutes, local dev)

# 1. Extract the archive
unzip laracontact-v2.zip && cd laracontact-v2

# 2. Install dependencies
composer install
npm install

# 3. Bootstrap environment
cp .env.example .env
php artisan key:generate

# 4. Initialize the database (defaults to SQLite)
touch database/database.sqlite
php artisan migrate --seed

# 5. Link the public storage disk (needed for logo uploads)
php artisan storage:link

# 6. Build frontend assets
npm run build

# 7. Start the dev environment
composer run dev

composer run dev starts the web server, queue worker, Vite, and Laravel Reverb concurrently. Open http://localhost:8000 and sign in with the seeded demo user:

• Email: demo@laracontact.test
• Password: password

3Deployment options

3.1 Laravel Cloud (easiest)

1. Push the project to a GitHub repository.
2. Sign in to Laravel Cloud and create a new project pointing at the repo.
3. Add a Postgres add-on or attach an external database; copy the connection vars into the environment editor.
4. Set the environment variables listed in §4 below.
5. Cloud auto-runs composer install, php artisan migrate --force, and npm ci && npm run build on every push.
6. Add a Cron rule for the scheduler:

   * * * * * php artisan schedule:run

3.2 Laravel Forge (recommended for production)

1. Provision a server (DigitalOcean, Hetzner, Vultr, AWS, etc.) through Forge.
2. Create a new site pointing at your domain. Web directory: public. PHP: 8.3.
3. Set up a Git deployment from your repo with this script:

   cd $FORGE_SITE_PATH
   git pull origin main
   $FORGE_COMPOSER install --no-interaction --prefer-dist --optimize-autoloader
   $FORGE_PHP artisan migrate --force
   npm ci
   npm run build
   $FORGE_PHP artisan storage:link
   $FORGE_PHP artisan optimize

4. Add the daemon for queue workers under Daemons:

   php /home/forge/your-site/artisan queue:work --sleep=1 --tries=3 --max-time=3600

5. Add the scheduler under Scheduler:

   * * * * * php /home/forge/your-site/artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1

6. (Optional, for real-time SMS notifications) Add a second daemon:

   php /home/forge/your-site/artisan reverb:start --host=0.0.0.0 --port=8080

   Then proxy wss://yourdomain.com/app to localhost:8080 via Nginx.

3.3 Manual VPS (Nginx + PHP-FPM)

# Install OS packages (Ubuntu 24.04 example)
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y nginx php8.3 php8.3-fpm php8.3-mbstring php8.3-xml php8.3-bcmath \
                    php8.3-curl php8.3-mysql php8.3-sqlite3 php8.3-zip php8.3-intl \
                    mariadb-server composer nodejs npm git

# Clone + install
cd /var/www && sudo git clone https://your-repo laracontact && cd laracontact
sudo composer install --no-interaction --prefer-dist --optimize-autoloader
sudo npm ci && sudo npm run build

# Configure
sudo cp .env.example .env
sudo nano .env  # set APP_URL, APP_ENV=production, APP_DEBUG=false, DB_*, MAIL_*
sudo php artisan key:generate
sudo php artisan migrate --force
sudo php artisan storage:link
sudo php artisan config:cache route:cache view:cache

# Permissions
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data storage bootstrap/cache database
sudo chmod -R ug+rwX storage bootstrap/cache database

Nginx site config:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name yourdomain.com;
    root /var/www/laracontact/public;
    index index.php;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock;
    }

    location ~ /\.(?!well-known).* { deny all; }
}

Then run certbot --nginx -d yourdomain.com for free SSL.

3.4 Shared hosting (cPanel / Plesk)

LaraContact works on shared hosting if the host supports PHP 8.3:

1. Upload the project ZIP via File Manager and extract above public_html.
2. Point the domain's document root to your-project/public.
3. Use the hosting panel's "Composer" and "Node.js" tools to run composer install and npm run build (or upload pre-built vendor/ and public/build/).
4. Use the panel's MySQL Wizard to create a DB; fill the credentials in .env.
5. SSH (if available): php artisan migrate --force && php artisan storage:link.
6. Queue/Scheduler: Shared hosts typically only support cron. Add:

   * * * * * cd /home/user/your-project && php artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1

   Queued mail and reminders rely on this.

4Environment variables

Minimum required in .env:

APP_NAME=LaraContact
APP_ENV=production
APP_KEY=                          # php artisan key:generate
APP_DEBUG=false
APP_URL=https://yourdomain.com

# Database — pick one
DB_CONNECTION=sqlite              # or mysql / pgsql
# DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
# DB_PORT=3306
# DB_DATABASE=laracontact
# DB_USERNAME=your_user
# DB_PASSWORD=your_password

# Mail — defaults to writing to laravel.log
MAIL_MAILER=log                   # log | smtp | resend | mailgun | postmark | ses

# Queue (use database for shared hosting, redis for VPS+)
QUEUE_CONNECTION=database         # or redis

# Sessions / cache
SESSION_DRIVER=database
CACHE_STORE=database

# Broadcasting (optional, for real-time inbound SMS toasts)
BROADCAST_CONNECTION=reverb
REVERB_APP_ID=
REVERB_APP_KEY=
REVERB_APP_SECRET=
REVERB_HOST=yourdomain.com
REVERB_PORT=443
REVERB_SCHEME=https
VITE_REVERB_APP_KEY="${REVERB_APP_KEY}"
VITE_REVERB_HOST="${REVERB_HOST}"
VITE_REVERB_PORT="${REVERB_PORT}"
VITE_REVERB_SCHEME="${REVERB_SCHEME}"

5Connecting Twilio (SMS, WhatsApp, Calls)

1. Sign up at twilio.com.
2. Buy a phone number with SMS + Voice capability (~$1/month US).
3. (Optional) For WhatsApp, activate the WhatsApp Business sandbox or apply for a verified sender.
4. In LaraContact: Settings → Twilio, paste:
   • Account SID (from Twilio Console homepage)
   • Auth Token
   • Phone Number in E.164 format (e.g. +14155558881)
   • API Key SID + Secret and Application SID (only if enabling browser-based voice calling)
5. Uncheck "Fake mode" to enable real delivery.
6. In Twilio Console, set the "A Message Comes In" webhook for your number to:

   https://yourdomain.com/webhooks/twilio/sms

   This enables two-way SMS — inbound replies will arrive in the app and trigger real-time toasts.

6Connecting Anthropic Claude (AI features)

1. Sign up at console.anthropic.com.
2. Create an API key (starts with sk-ant-).
3. In LaraContact: Settings → AI, paste the key.
4. Pick a model. Recommended:
   • claude-opus-4-7 — best for AI enrichment + translation (smartest)
   • claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 — faster + cheaper for spell-check + tag suggestions
5. Click Test AI connection to confirm.

If no key is set, AI features fall back to regex/heuristic mode and continue to work.

7Mail provider setup

LaraContact supports multiple drivers through Settings → Mail:

Click Send test email in the settings page to verify.

8Updating to a new version

cd /your/project
git pull origin main            # or replace files from new ZIP
composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader
npm ci
npm run build
php artisan migrate --force
php artisan optimize:clear
php artisan optimize

If you use queue workers / Reverb, restart them: php artisan queue:restart.

9Backup

The two things to back up:

1. Database — mysqldump, pg_dump, or copy database/database.sqlite
2. storage/app/public/ — uploaded logos, custom field attachments

.env should be backed up to a secrets vault (not your DB backup).

10Troubleshooting

11License & Support

This product is licensed per the Envato CodeCanyon license you purchased. See LICENSE.md for details.

Support is provided via the Envato item page or the contact listed in the product description. Include your Envato Purchase Code, server stack details (php -v, OS, web server), and the relevant storage/logs/laravel.log excerpt when filing a ticket.