How To Use Docker In Laravel For Local Development

Docker has become an invaluable tool for developers looking to streamline their local development environments, and when combined with Laravel, a popular PHP framework, it can significantly enhance the ease and consistency of development workflows. Docker allows you to create isolated containers that encapsulate your application’s dependencies and environment, making it easier to set up, share, and replicate development environments across different machines. In this guide, we will walk you through the essential steps to use Docker in Laravel for local development.

In this steps we will be using :

• MySQL
• Nginx
• NPM
• Composer

Step 1 : Create ‘src’ Folder Structure

< YourAppFolder >
  < src >

In this src folder your Laravel project will stored.

Step 2 : Create docker-compose.yaml file.

< YourAppFolder >
  < src >
  docker-compose.yaml

Step 3 : Configure NGINX image in docker-compose.yaml

version: '3.8'

networks:
  laravel:
    name: laravel

services:
  nginx:
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: nginx.dockerfile
    container_name: nginx
    depends_on:
      - mysql
      - php
    ports:
      - "3000:80"
      - "8443:443"
    volumes:
      - ./src:/var/www/html
    networks:
      - laravel

In this section we will set

1. Network name as “laravel”
2. NGINX container as “nginx”
3. Expose port 3000 and 8443

We set our docker network as “Laravel” and we set depends_on for mysql and php which is will we set in the next step. The reason we set this depends_on mysql and php . we want our nginx compose after mysql and php container.

Create our NGINX dockerfile

Create docker file for nginx
FROM nginx:stable-alpine

ADD ./nginx/default.conf /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf

RUN mkdir -p /var/www/html

RUN mkdir -p /etc/nginx/certs/mkcert

ADD ./nginx/certs/ /etc/nginx/certs/mkcert

Step 4 : Configure your MySQL container

mysql:
    image: mysql:8.1.0
    container_name: mysql
    ports:
      - "4306:3306"
    volumes:
      - ./mysql:/var/lib/mysql
    environment:
      MYSQL_DATABASE : laraveldb
      MYSQL_USER : laravel
      MYSQL_PASSWORD : password
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: password
    networks:
      - laravel

in this section will be using port 4306 for your mysql client connection

Step 5: Configure composer container

composer:
    image: composer:latest
    container_name: composer
    volumes:
      - ./src:/var/www/html
    working_dir: /var/www/html
    networks:
      - laravel

in this section will configure composer image which is will much easier for us to use composer for our Laravel application.

Step 6: Configure artisan image

artisan:
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: php.dockerfile
    container_name: artisan
    volumes:
      - ./src:/var/www/html
    working_dir: /var/www/html
    entrypoint:
      - php
      - artisan
    networks:
      - laravel

in this section we will set image for our artisan container

Step 7: Configure our NPM container

  npm:
    image: node:latest
    container_name: npm
    volumes:
      - ./src:/var/www/html
      - ./nginx/certs:/etc/vite/certs
    working_dir: /var/www/html
    ports:
      - "5173:5173"
      - "3001:3001"
    entrypoint:
      - npm
    networks:
      - laravel

in this section we will set image for our NPM container will be use for our npm command and expose port for 5173 for our Vite.

Step 8 : Configure our PHP container

  php:
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: php.dockerfile
    container_name: php
    volumes:
      - ./src:/var/www/html
    networks:
      - laravel

Create our PHP dockerfile

FROM php:8.1-fpm-alpine

RUN mkdir -p /var/www/html

RUN apk --no-cache add shadow && usermod -u 1000 www-data

RUN docker-php-ext-install pdo pdo_mysql

Step 8 : Set NGINX conf file

Create a folder name NGINX at your root document as sub folder certs to easy manage your SSL certs.

< YourAppFolder >
  < src >
  < nginx >
    < certs >

Create a default.conf file in the nginx folder

server {
    listen 80 default_server;

    server_name _;

    return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    index index.php index.html;
    server_name localhost;
    root /var/www/html/public;

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

    location ~ \.php$ {
        try_files $uri =404;
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
        fastcgi_pass php:9000;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info;
    }

    ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/certs/mkcert/laraveldocker.test.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/certs/mkcert/laraveldocker.test-key.pem;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    index index.php index.html;
    server_name _;
    root /var/www/html/public;

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

    location ~ \.php$ {
        try_files $uri =404;
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
        fastcgi_pass php:9000;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info;
    }
}

Step 9 : Set MySQL data folder

Create a folder name mysql to hold all your database data.

< YourAppFolder >
  < src >
  < nginx >
    < certs >
  < mysql >

Step 10 : Run your docker environment

docker compose up -d

Thank you!~