Boilerplate

Good job finding this secret page! This magical documentation spells out how I personally approach creating a new Laravel application. Feel free to use it for your reference.

Essential

Install Laravel

Run the following command to create a brand-new Laravel application:

composer create-project laravel/laravel appname

Set up Git

Go to the directory and initialize git:

cd appname
git init --initial-branch=main
git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit."

Install code quality tools

Configure Laravel Pint by creating a pint.json file in the root directory:

{
  "preset": "psr12",
  "rules": {
    "new_with_parentheses": {
      "anonymous_class": false,
      "named_class": true
    },
    "braces_position": {
      "anonymous_classes_opening_brace": "next_line_unless_newline_at_signature_end"
    },
    "concat_space": {
      "spacing": "one"
    }
  },
  "exclude": [
    "bootstrap",
    "config",
    "public"
  ]
}

Run Pint to check if it changes the User.php model correctly by spliting the traits into separate lines:

vendor/bin/pint

Commit the changes:

git add .
git commit -m "Set up Pint."

Install Larastan:

composer require larastan/larastan --dev

Create a new file phpstan.neon in the root directory with the following content:

includes:
    - ./vendor/larastan/larastan/extension.neon

parameters:

    paths:
        - app

    # The level 9 is the highest level
    level: 5

    checkMissingIterableValueType: false

When you want to use Larastan to check code quality, run the following command:

composer exec phpstan analyze app

Install PHPMD:

composer require phpmd/phpmd --dev

Create a new file phpmd.xml in the root directory with the following content:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<ruleset name="My first PHPMD rule set"
         xmlns="http://pmd.sf.net/ruleset/1.0.0"
         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://pmd.sf.net/ruleset/1.0.0 http://pmd.sf.net/ruleset_xml_schema.xsd"
         xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="http://pmd.sf.net/ruleset_xml_schema.xsd">
    <description>Leo's standard phpmd.xml for Laravel</description>

    <rule ref="rulesets/cleancode.xml">
        <exclude name="StaticAccess"/>
        <exclude name="ElseExpression"/>
    </rule>

    <rule ref="rulesets/codesize.xml"/>
    <rule ref="rulesets/controversial.xml"/>

    <rule ref="rulesets/design.xml">
        <exclude name="CouplingBetweenObjects"/>
    </rule>
    <rule ref="rulesets/design.xml/CouplingBetweenObjects">
        <properties>
            <property name="maximum" value="20"/>
        </properties>
    </rule>

    <rule ref="rulesets/naming.xml">
        <exclude name="ShortVariable"/>
        <exclude name="LongVariable"/>
    </rule>
    <rule ref="rulesets/naming.xml/ShortVariable">
        <properties>
            <property name="minimum" value="3"/>
            <property name="exceptions" value="i,j,e,f,id,db"/>
        </properties>
    </rule>

    <rule ref="rulesets/unusedcode.xml">
        <exclude name="UnusedFormalParameter"/>
    </rule>
</ruleset>

When you want to use PHPMD to check code quality, run the following command:

composer exec phpmd app text phpmd.xml

Commit your changes so far:

git add .
git commit "Install Larastan and PHPMD."

Set up admin users

If your application uses admin users, edit the migration create_users_table.php and add a boolean is_admin field to designate admin users:

$table->boolean('is_admin')->default(false);

In the User model, add the boolean cast for the is_admin attribute:

/**
 * Get the attributes that should be cast.
 *
 * @return array<string, string>
 */
protected function casts(): array
{
    return [
        'is_admin' => 'boolean',
    ];
}

Add the CheckAdmin middleware:

php artisan make:middleware CheckAdmin

public function handle($request, Closure $next)
{
    // Is there's no authenticated admin user, redirect to home
    if (! $request->user() || ! $request->user()->is_admin) {
        return redirect()->route('home');
    }

    return $next($request);
}

To restrict certain routes for admins, assign them the CheckAdmin middleware:

Route::prefix('/admin')->middleware(CheckAdmin::class)->group(function () {
    Route::get('/', [AdminController::class, 'dashboard')->name('admin.dashboard');
});

Set up database and environment

Create your development database and edit the .env file:

APP_NAME="App Name"
APP_URL=http://url.local

DB_CONNECTION=mariadb
DB_HOST=mariadb
DB_DATABASE=app_name
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=root

Run migration and laravel-ide-helper (if you've installed it) to test database connection:

php artisan migrate
php artisan ide-helper:models -WR

Commit your changes so far.

git add .
git commit "Set up admin users."

Install additional composer packages

Install some nice composer packages as necessary. Make sure to also follow their docs to set them up properly:

composer require laravel/telescope
composer require barryvdh/laravel-debugbar --dev
composer require barryvdh/laravel-ide-helper --dev # may be outdated
composer require venturecraft/revisionable
composer require lab404/laravel-impersonate

Frontend

Install Laravel Breeze

Run the following commands:

composer require laravel/breeze
php artisan breeze:install blade
git add .
git commit "Install Laravel Breeze."

Convert to Bootstrap

In package.json, delete the following packages:

@tailwindcss/forms
alpinejs
autoprefixer
postcss
tailwindcss

Install Bootstrap:

npm i bootstrap sass -D

Delete the files postcss.config.js and tailwind.config.js.

In vite.config.js, replace resources/css/app.css with resources/scss/app.scss.

Delete the following directories:

app/View
resources/css
resources/views

Copy the files from breezebootstrap/resources into your application's resources directory, which contains three subdirectories:

js
scss
views

In /routes/web.php, update the home route:

Route::view('/', 'home')->name('home');

Run Vite and test your changes:

npm run dev

Commit your changes:

git add .
git commit "Convert to Bootstrap."

Install Essence

git submodule add https://.../essence.git resources/essence

git add .
git commit "Install Essence."

Set up SASS files

In resources/scss/app.scss, edit as follows to standardize theming:

// Variables
@import 'variables';

// Import Essence
@import '../essence/scss/essence';

// Vendors
@import 'vendors';

// General styles
@import 'styles';

Commit your changes:

git add .
git commit "Set up asset building."

Install Font Awesome (or an icon package of your preference)

npm install @fortawesome/fontawesome-free -D

In resources/scss/_vendors.scss, add the following:

@import '@fortawesome/fontawesome-free/scss/fontawesome';
@import '@fortawesome/fontawesome-free/scss/regular';
@import '@fortawesome/fontawesome-free/scss/solid';
@import '@fortawesome/fontawesome-free/scss/brands';

Add misc code for supercharged development

In AppServiceProvider.php, add the following code in the boot() method:

public function boot(): void
{
    Model::shouldBeStrict(! $this->app->isProduction());
    Model::unguard();
    Paginator::useBootstrap();
}