Build Your Laravel User Interface Today

Ryan Forrester

Mar 22nd, 2024

Blog

Building Your First Laravel User Interface (Step-by-Step Guide)

Building a modern web application often requires integrating a front-end user interface with a back-end framework.

Laravel, a popular PHP web application framework, provides a solid foundation for building robust and scalable applications. However, to create an engaging and interactive user experience, you’ll need to combine Laravel with a front-end JavaScript framework or library.

This comprehensive step-by-step guide walks you through the process of building your first Laravel user interface, covering everything from setting up the project to integrating a front-end framework like Vue.js, and deploying the application for production.

Table of Contents

Set Up a New Laravel Project
Install Required Dependencies
Configure webpack.mix.js File
Create Your Vue.js (or Other Front-End Framework) Components
Free Training

Set Up a New Laravel Project

Install Laravel if you haven’t already: composer global require laravel/installer
Create a new Laravel project: laravel new project-name
Navigate to the project directory: cd project-name

Install Required Dependencies

Install Node.js and npm (Node Package Manager) if you haven’t already.
Install the required JavaScript dependencies (e.g., Vue.js, React, or any other front-end framework/library you prefer) by running the appropriate command in your terminal. For example, to install Vue.js:

npm install --save-dev vue@next vue-loader@next

Configure webpack.mix.js File

Open the webpack.mix.js file located in the root directory of your Laravel project.
Configure the file to include the necessary JavaScript dependencies and their entry points.
For example, if you’re using Vue.js, your webpack.mix.js file might look like this:

const mix = require('laravel-mix');

mix.js('resources/js/app.js', 'public/js')
   .vue();

Create Your Vue.js (or Other Front-End Framework) Components

Create a new directory called components inside the resources/js directory.
Create your Vue.js (or other front-end framework) components inside the components directory.
For example, create a file called Example.vue inside resources/js/components with the following content:

<template>
  <div>
    <h1>Hello, Laravel!</h1>
  </div>
</template>

<script>
export default {
  name: 'Example'
}
</script>

Side Note: There’s an Easier Way To Build Your Interface

Five is a rapid development environment, which allows you to build applications faster than ever. Five integrates all steps of application development: backend, frontend, and deployment.

Five automatically creates a responsive web interface, including forms, charts, dashboards, or PDF reports on top of almost any data source – no front-end skills or framework knowledge required!

Follow our FREE code-along tutorial and learn how to rapidly build a full-stack web application.

Code Along: Web App Development

Follow our FREE step-by-step code-along tutorial.

Build Your Web App

Free Training

Import and Use Your Components in the Main App.js File

Open the resources/js/app.js file.
Import your Vue.js (or other front-end framework) components.
Mount your Vue.js instance and specify the target element for rendering.
For example, with Vue.js:

import { createApp } from 'vue';
import Example from './components/Example.vue';

const app = createApp({});
app.component('example-component', Example);
app.mount('#app');

Create a Blade Template for Rendering Your Vue.js Components

Create a new blade template file inside the resources/views directory, e.g., example.blade.php.
Add a div with an id where your Vue.js components will be rendered, and include the compiled JavaScript file.
For example:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Laravel User Interface</title>
    <script src="{{ mix('/js/app.js') }}" defer></script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id="app">
      <example-component></example-component>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

Create a Route and Controller for Rendering the Blade Template

Create a new route in the routes/web.php file:

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

Create a new controller called ExampleController by running the following Artisan command:

php artisan make:controller ExampleController

Open the app/Http/Controllers/ExampleController.php file and define the index method to return the blade template:

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

class ExampleController extends Controller
{
  public function index()
  {
    return view('example');
  }
}

Run the Development Server

Run the Laravel development server with the following command:

php artisan serve

Open your web browser and navigate to http://localhost:8000 to see your Laravel user interface.

Build for Production

When you’re ready to deploy your Laravel interface to a production server, run the following command to compile your assets:

npm run production

This will create a public/js/app.js file with your optimized and minified JavaScript code.

When you run the Laravel development server, navigate to http://localhost:8000.

Conclusion: Creating Your Laravel User Interface

Keep in mind that this is a basic setup, and you may need to adjust the configuration and add more functionality based on your specific requirements. Additionally, you can incorporate other front-end libraries or frameworks, such as React or Angular, by following a similar approach and adjusting the configuration accordingly.