Deploy a Laravel application on Heroku with MySQL database

Hello guys! What's going on? I hope you are doing well. I'm going to guide you for an interesting tutorial today. Have you ever deployed a Laravel application which makes anyone to access on web? If you haven't, this is the article for you! You have only simple things to do! Just Follow me...

Step 1 - Create a Heroku Account and Install Heroku CLI

Go to https://heroku.com and create an account for you. Then you have to install Heroku CLI to your machine. It helps to connect with Heroku cloud platform using commands on CLI.

Follow this link: 

https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/heroku-cli#download-and-install

Step 2 - Create a new Laravel Project

Open terminal and create a project like this..

composer create-project laravel/laravel herokudep99

Step 3 - Heroku Login

Open your terminal and Login to Heroku platform. Provide your username and password.

heroku login

Then you will be navigated into a browser window to login.

Now you will be able to communicate with Heroku. Let's configure our app to be able to connect with MYSQL DB when it's deployed to Heroku. 

Step 4 - Configure Database

NOTE:

The usual configuration done using .env file in Laravel is not going work on deployed app because that file is not pushed to Heorku when app is deployed. 

Open config/datababe.php and modify it like this. Insert the below code after this line.
use Illuminate\Support\Str;

$url = parse_url(getenv("CLEARDB_DATABASE_URL"));
$host = $url["host"] ?? null;
$username = $url["user"] ?? null;
$password = $url["pass"] ?? null;
$database = substr($url["path"], 1);

Next update the MYSQL array in this file like this...It will take care of DB.

        'mysql' => [
            'driver' => 'mysql',
            'host' => $host,
            'port' => env('DB_PORT', '3306'),
            'database' => $database,
            'username' => $username,
            'password' => $password,
            'unix_socket' => env('DB_SOCKET', ''),
            'charset' => 'utf8mb4',
            'collation' => 'utf8mb4_unicode_ci',
            'prefix' => '',
            'strict' => true,
            'engine' => null,
        ]

Now create a Model to perform a migration with MYSQL.

php artisan make:model Product -m

Update the migration file created in database/migrations folder.

        Schema::create('products', function (Blueprint $table) {
            $table->bigIncrements('id');
            $table->string('product_name');
            $table->string('product_description');
            $table->timestamps();
        });

Let's create a seeder and prepare some dummy objects.

php artisan make:seed ProductsTableSeeder

Find the relevant seeder with database/seeds folder. Modify the seeder file like this.

<?php

use Illuminate\Database\Seeder;
use App\Product;

class ProductsTableSeeder extends Seeder
{
    public function run()
    {
        Product::create([
            'product_name' => 'MacBook Pro',
            'product_description' => 'Apple Laptop'
        ]);

        Product::create([
            'product_name' => 'Huawei GR5 2017',
            'product_description' => 'Andriod Smart Phone'
        ]);
    }
}

Now tell the main DatabaseTableSeeder to include this seeder when deploying...

    public function run()
    {
        $this->call(ProductsTableSeeder::class);
    }

Step 5 - Push the Project to Heroku

Go into the project folder and follow me by typing the below commands. Give a proper unique name with some regex.

git init

heroku apps:create herokudep99

git init

git add .

echo "web: vendor/bin/heroku-php-apache2 public/" > Procfile

git commit -m "add files to heroku"

Now go to https://dashboard.heroku.com/apps and select the app you  have already created.

Select Resources tab and search for clearDB MYSQL. It is the addon available in Heorku for MYSQL configuration. Select this addon and click on Provision button.

Use the below command on terminal to check whether clearDB is configured or not for your app. This command will show you the URL.

heroku config | grep CLEARDB_DATABASE_URL

Now it's time to set some environment variables. Follow me gyus!!!

1. Generate a APP_KEY

php artisan key:generate --show

2. Set APP_KEY

heroku config:set APP_KEY=above_key

3. Set URL for app

heroku config:set APP_URL=herokudep99.herokuapp.com

Finally you can check your configs with this command..Check carefully all the variables are there...

heroku config

Now we are ready to deploy guys!

We can do it like we do in GIT. we have to use Heroku CLI with GIT commands. Use the following commands.

git push heroku master

The below command will migrate the migrations and feed data into DB.

heroku run php artisan migrate --seed

Step 6 - Check Database

Select your app in Heroku platform and go into resources tab. Click on ClearDB MYSQL addon. Then it will direct you to a new page. There you find a link which is having your DB name(random name). Click on that link. It will direct you to another page. Move into the System Information tab and copy the username and password.

Open MYSQL Workbench software and create a new instance!

NOTE:
Provide HOST name correctly. Use GREP command to see DB URL and from it, extract the host. It should be like the below one starting from us-.

us-cdbr-iron-east-05.cleardb.net

GREP Command:
heroku config | grep CLEARDB_DATABASE_URL

This is my results on workbench..

You got the results guys? If so, you have followed me correctly and nothing to be worried. Now your app deployed on Heoku has been connected to MYSQL DB as I promised at the beginning of the article! Now you can work with Laravel to create more models, migrations and seeders. Push them and see again..It will definitely work!!!

Step 7 - More Check On Data

I'm going to modify the project a little bit and check in the changes again. My aim is to configure a view with a controller to display the products array. Open teminal inside the project and type the command to create a controller..

php artisan make:controller PageController

Let's add a function to the controller to dump the products as an array when we go for that view. This function will show the items collection.

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use App\Product;

class PageController extends Controller
{
    public function index(){
        $products = Product::all();
        dd($products);
        return view('welcome')->with(['products' => $products]);
    }
}

Now we have to configure the base route to call this function. It's very simple! Add this route to the routes/web.php file.

Route::get('/', 'PageController@index');

That's all..Now we can push these changes to Heroku app. Open your terminal and perform these commands.

git add .
git commit -m "add controller"
git push heroku master
heroku run php artisan migrate:refresh

heroku run php artisan db:seed

What will be the result we get when we go  and open the appication on browser? Go to http://herokudep99.herokuapp.com and check! You must get the this result since we seeded two products into the table in Heroku!

NOW IT'S OVER GUYS!!!

So, this is the end of today's article..I hope you got something interested into your Laravel LIFE! Keep in touch with TechPool to get more articles and more knowledge on web technologies!


GOOD BYE GUYS!