Laravel doesn't support subfolder website (https://mydomain.com/website) ?

[jrbecart]

Hi @taylorotwell ,

Sorry to ping you here, but I am (along with others) very confused right now.

It looks like Laravel doesn't support website in a subfolder like https://mydomain.com/website
This is very surprising as this is used in many organizations and institutions almost everywhere.

Many issues were closed saying that Laravel doesn't support this, referring to the doc here: https://laravel.com/docs/7.x/installation#directory-configuration
But there is no explanation here, root of the web directory on the web server and subfolder website are related but two different things.
There is no issue having Lavarel served out of the root of the "web directory" with: a domain, a subdomain or a subfolder website, because it's a web server configuration (NGINX, Apache, etc.).

So the recommendation is fine but doesn't apply to the type of website (domain/subdomain/subfolder)

If it's true that you don't support subfolders websites (https://mydomain.com/website), can you give the reason?
And if so then it should be clearer and added in the documentation.

Thanks for your feedback on this!

Regards,

[driesvints]

Hey @jrbecart. The reason is right there in the docs:

Attempting to do so could expose sensitive files present within your application.

[jrbecart]

Hi @driesvints

Please read carefully, I think you didn't get it.

You can have your server setup with this true:
Laravel should always be served out of the root of the "web directory" configured for your web server. You should not attempt to serve a Laravel application out of a subdirectory of the "web directory".
AND your website in https://mydomain.com/website
because it depend on how is configured your web server

root of the web directory on the web server and subfolder website are related but two different things

[kangzoel]

Because it's a Laravel app I think 🤔
In a Laravel app, whatever path you type after the app root will be handled by the router.

If you want to serve another code/ framework, just point a subdomain into that.

[jrbecart]

Thanks @ali-alharthi ,
I already know how to do it and I am not looking for a solution here!

Can you explain why this "thing" is not standards or best practices?
Can you also please read my other comments where I explain the reason of the purpose of sub directories.

[ali-alharthi]

@jrbecart Sorry meant best practices and not standards.
The thing is rewrite rules tend to come at a cost especially if you are not experienced.
On the other hand, if you are an experienced devop I don't see laravel being a problem and you can manipulate the web server to do what you need it to do!

[jrbecart]

I am fully agree with you and the doc should be clearer on that point. Thanks!

[ramik5]

@jrbecart Hello! Can you tell me how to configure nginx so that the Laravel application works in a subdirectory?

I am using Ubuntu 20.04 + Laravel 8 in a Docker container.

My Nginx configuration:

server {

    charset utf-8;

    client_max_body_size 128M;

    server_name mydomain;

    index index.html;
    
    root /var/www/mydomain/www;
    
    error_log /var/www/mydomain/log/error.log;
 
    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:9223;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_ssl_server_name on;
    }

    location ~ /\.(ht|svn|git) {
        deny all;
    }

    listen 443 ssl; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/mydomain/fullchain.pem; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/mydomain/privkey.pem; # managed by Certbot
    include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem; # managed by Certbot

}

server {
    if ($host = mydomain) {
        return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
    } # managed by Certbot



    server_name mydomain;

    listen 80;
    return 404; # managed by Certbot
}

The application works fine when I request mydomain/. Now, I want the application to be available at mydomain/subfolder. Thanks!

[jrbecart]

@ramik5
For all my subsites I have some separate conf files.

In your first server {} declaration you can add (for example): include /etc/nginx/config/*.conf;
This load all sites configurations you have from the folder /etc/nginx/config/

Then, as an example, in the file /etc/nginx/config/example-other-site.conf you can have something like this:

location ^~ /template {

    alias /var/www/example-template/public;
    try_files $uri $uri/ @template;
    
    error_log /var/log/nginx/template_error.log;
    access_log /var/log/nginx/template_access.log combined;

    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass php-upstream;
        include        fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME $request_filename;
        fastcgi_param  SERVER_PORT 443; #important
        fastcgi_read_timeout 600;
    }
} 

location @template {
    rewrite /template/(.*)$ /template/index.php?/$1 last;
}

If you follow this configuration, in your case you will have
Site 1: https://mydomain (folder on your server: /var/www/mydomain/www)
Site 2: https://mydomain/template (folder on your server: /var/www/example-template/public)

In my config all my root folders end by /public, you may check that for your case.

Hope that helps!