Environment Configuration and Database Setup

Laravel uses a .env file to store environment-specific settings like database credentials.

Why .env is important

• Keeps secrets out of code
• Easy to change per environment
• Makes deployment safer

Configure database

Open the .env file and update:

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=laravel_app
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=

Create the database manually in MySQL.

Test connection

php artisan migrate

If it runs without errors, your database is connected.

How config flows

flowchart LR
  A[.env] --> B[config/database.php]
  B --> C[Laravel DB Manager]
  C --> D[(MySQL)]

In the next tutorial, we will create tables using migrations instead of writing raw SQL.