Laravel - Configuration

In the previous chapter, we saw that the main Laravel configuration files are included in the config directory . In this chapter, let's discuss the categories included in the configuration.

Environment configuration

Environment variables are those that provide a list of web services to your web application. All environment variables are declared in the .env file, which includes the settings needed to initialize the configuration.

By default , the .env file contains the following options:

APP_ENV=local
APP_DEBUG=true
APP_KEY = base64:ZPt2wmKE/X4eEhrzJU6XX4R93rCwYG8E2f8QUA7kGK8 =
APP_URL = http://localhost
DB_CONNECTION = mysql
DB_HOST = 127.0.0.1
DB_PORT = 3306
DB_DATABASE = homestead
DB_USERNAME = homestead
DB_PASSWORD = secret
CACHE_DRIVER = file
SESSION_DRIVER = file
QUEUE_DRIVER = sync
REDIS_HOST = 127.0.0.1
REDIS_PASSWORD = null
REDIS_PORT = 6379
MAIL_DRIVER=smtp
MAIL_HOST=mailtrap.ioMAIL_PORT=2525
MAIL_USERNAME = null
MAIL_PASSWORD = null
MAIL_ENCRYPTION = null

Important Points

When working with the main Laravel configuration files, the following points should be noted:

• The .env file should not be committed to the application's source control system because each developer or user has a predefined environment configuration for the web application.

• For backup options, the development team must include a .env.example file , which must contain the default configuration.

The .env file should not be committed to the application's source control system because each developer or user has a predefined environment configuration for the web application.

For backup options, the development team must include a .env.example file , which must contain the default configuration.

Retrieving Environment Variables

All environment variables declared in the .env file can be accessed through the env-helper functions that will call the appropriate option. These variables are also specified in the $_ENV global variable whenever the application receives a request from the user. You can access the environment variable as shown below −

'env' => env('APP_ENV', 'production'),

The env helper functions are called in the app.php file , which is located in the config folder . The above example calls the base local parameter.

Accessing Configuration Values

You can easily access configuration values ​​anywhere in the application using the global helper function config. If the configuration values ​​are not initialized, the default values ​​are returned.

For example, to set the default timezone, the following code is used −

config(['app.timezone' => 'Asia/Kolkata']);

Configuration caching

To improve performance and improve the efficiency of a web application, it is important to cache all configuration values. The command to cache configuration values ​​is −

config:cache

The following screenshot shows caching in a systematic approach −

Maintenance mode

Sometimes you may need to update some configuration settings or perform maintenance on your website. In such cases, keeping it in maintenance mode will make it easier for you. Such web applications that are in maintenance mode will throw an exception, namely MaintenanceModeException with status code 503.

You can enable maintenance mode in your Laravel web application using the following command:

php artisan down

The following screenshot shows what the web application looks like when it is not running.

Once you are done with updates and other maintenance, you can turn off maintenance mode in your web application using the following command −

php artisan up

Now you may find that the website is showing a result with proper functioning and showing that maintenance mode has now been removed as shown below −