Installation

Install and set up C.A.R. 911 on your server with PHP, Composer, and MySQL

System requirements

Before installing C.A.R. 911, ensure your system meets the following requirements:

PHP version

• PHP 7.3 or higher (PHP 8.0+ supported)
• Required PHP extensions:
  • OpenSSL
  • PDO
  • Mbstring
  • Tokenizer
  • XML
  • Ctype
  • JSON
  • BCMath

Database

• MySQL 5.7+ or MariaDB 10.3+

Package manager

• Composer (latest stable version recommended)

C.A.R. 911 is built on Laravel 8.75, which requires PHP 7.3 as the minimum version. For optimal performance and security, we recommend using PHP 8.0 or higher.

Installation steps

Follow these steps to install C.A.R. 911 on your server:

1. Install dependencies

   Navigate to the project directory and install all PHP dependencies using Composer:

   composer install
   

   This will install the Laravel framework along with required packages including:

   • Laravel Sanctum for API authentication
   • Spatie Laravel Permission for role management
   • Maatwebsite Excel for report exports
   • PHPWord for document generation
2. Create environment file

   Copy the example environment file to create your configuration:

   cp .env.example .env
   

   This creates a new .env file where you’ll configure your application settings.

3. Generate application key

   Generate a unique encryption key for your application:

   php artisan key:generate
   

   This command automatically updates your .env file with a secure APP_KEY value.

4. Configure database connection

   Open your .env file and update the database configuration:

   DB_CONNECTION=mysql
   DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
   DB_PORT=3306
   DB_DATABASE=car_911
   DB_USERNAME=your_database_user
   DB_PASSWORD=your_database_password
   

   Ensure your database user has sufficient privileges to create tables, indexes, and foreign keys.

5. Run migrations and seed data

   Initialize the database schema and populate it with default data:

   php artisan migrate --seed
   

   This command will:

   • Create all necessary database tables
   • Set up the permission and role structure
   • Seed initial data for testing and development

Verify installation

After completing the installation steps, verify that C.A.R. 911 is working correctly:

Start the development server

php artisan serve

The application should now be accessible at http://localhost:8000.

Check the database connection

Verify that your database is properly configured:

php artisan migrate:status

This command displays the status of all migrations and confirms database connectivity.

Key packages installed

C.A.R. 911 includes several important packages that power its functionality:

composer.json (Core packages)

{
  "require": {
    "php": "^7.3|^8.0",
    "laravel/framework": "^8.75",
    "laravel/sanctum": "^2.11",
    "spatie/laravel-permission": "^5.5"
  }
}

Troubleshooting

Composer memory limit

If you encounter memory limit errors during composer install, increase PHP’s memory limit:

php -d memory_limit=-1 /usr/local/bin/composer install

Permission errors

Ensure the web server has write permissions to storage and cache directories:

chmod -R 775 storage bootstrap/cache
chown -R www-data:www-data storage bootstrap/cache

Migration failures

If migrations fail, check that:

• Your database credentials are correct in .env
• The database exists and is accessible
• Your database user has CREATE, ALTER, and DROP privileges

Next steps

Now that C.A.R. 911 is installed, proceed to configure your environment variables and application settings.