Quickstart

Get your first site running with Envloom in minutes

Quickstart Guide

This guide will walk you through creating your first local site with Envloom. We’ll create a new Laravel application and have it running at a local .test domain with SSL in just a few minutes.

Before starting, make sure you’ve installed Envloom and completed the first-launch bootstrap process.

Creating Your First Laravel Site

Let’s create a new Laravel site with Envloom’s site wizard.

1. Open the Sites Page

   In the Envloom application, click on Sites in the left sidebar to open the sites management page.

2. Launch the Site Wizard

   Click the “Create Site” or “Add Site” button to open the site creation wizard.

3. Choose Site Type

   In the wizard, select “Create new Laravel site”.

   Envloom will provision a complete Laravel application for you with all dependencies installed.

4. Configure Site Details

   Fill in the site configuration:

   • Site Name: Enter a name for your site (e.g., my-app)
   • Domain: This will auto-generate as my-app.test
   • Path: Choose where to create the project (e.g., C:\Users\YourName\Projects\my-app)
   • PHP Version: Select the PHP version to use (default is the current version)
   • Starter Kit: Optionally choose a Laravel starter kit:
     • None (plain Laravel)
     • React
     • Vue
     • Svelte
     • Livewire
5. Start Provisioning

   Click “Create Site” to begin the provisioning process.

   Envloom will:

   1. Download the Laravel starter kit or create a new Laravel project via Composer
   2. Create a .env file from .env.example
   3. Run composer install to install PHP dependencies
   4. Generate an application key with php artisan key:generate
   5. Run initial migrations to set up the database
   6. Install Laravel Boost for optimization
   7. Run npm install to install frontend dependencies
   8. Run npm run build to compile assets
   9. Run final migrations

   The provisioning process may take 3-5 minutes depending on your internet speed and computer performance. Watch the progress in the wizard output panel.

6. Wait for Configuration

   After provisioning completes, Envloom will:

   • Generate an Nginx configuration file for your site
   • Update your hosts file to point my-app.test to 127.0.0.1
   • Reload Nginx to apply the new configuration
7. Access Your Site

   Once complete, open your browser and visit:

   http://my-app.test
   

   You should see the Laravel welcome page!

Enabling SSL

Let’s add HTTPS support to your new site.

1. Navigate to Site Details

   In the Envloom Sites page, find your newly created site in the list and click on it to view details.

2. Toggle SSL

   Find the SSL toggle switch and turn it ON.

   Envloom will:

   • Generate a local certificate authority (if it doesn’t exist)
   • Create a SSL certificate for your domain
   • Update the Nginx configuration to serve HTTPS
   • Reload Nginx
3. Access via HTTPS

   Open your browser and visit:

   https://my-app.test
   

   Your browser will show a certificate warning because it’s a self-signed certificate.

4. Trust the Certificate (Optional)

   To remove the browser warning:

   1. In your browser, view the certificate details
   2. Export the Envloom CA certificate
   3. Import it into your Windows Trusted Root Certificate Authorities

   Or simply click “Advanced” → “Proceed” to bypass the warning during development.

   The SSL certificate is for local development only. Never use these certificates for production websites.

Linking an Existing Project

Already have a Laravel project? You can link it to Envloom instead of creating a new one.

Using the Desktop App

1. Open Sites Page

   Navigate to Sites in the Envloom sidebar.

2. Choose Link Existing

   Click “Add Site” and select “Link existing project”.

3. Configure the Site

   Fill in:

   • Site Name: A friendly name for your site
   • Domain: The local domain (e.g., existing-app.test)
   • Path: Browse to your existing project directory
   • PHP Version: Select the PHP version required by your project
4. Complete Linking

   Click “Link Site”. Envloom will:

   • Detect the project framework (Laravel, Symfony, WordPress, etc.)
   • Create an Nginx configuration
   • Add the domain to your hosts file
   • Reload Nginx
5. Access Your Site

   Visit your site at http://existing-app.test.

Using the CLI

Navigate to your project directory in a terminal and run:

cd C:\path\to\your\project
loom link

The CLI will:

1. Detect your project framework
2. Prompt for a domain name (defaults to folder name + .test)
3. Create the site configuration
4. Update hosts and reload Nginx

Example output:

Linking site in C:\Users\YourName\Projects\my-laravel-app
Framework detected: laravel
Enter domain name [my-laravel-app.test]: 
Site linked successfully!
Access your site at: http://my-laravel-app.test

Switching PHP Versions

Different projects may require different PHP versions. Here’s how to switch:

For a Specific Site

1. Open Site Details

   In the Sites page, click on the site you want to modify.

2. Change PHP Version

   Find the PHP Version dropdown and select a different version (e.g., PHP 8.2, PHP 8.1, PHP 7.4).

   If the version you need isn’t available, go to the PHP page first and install it using “Add version”.

3. Apply Changes

   Envloom will automatically:

   • Update the Nginx configuration for this site
   • Reload Nginx

   Your site now uses the selected PHP version!

Globally (All New Sites)

To change the default PHP version:

1. Go to the PHP page in Envloom
2. Find the version you want to use
3. Click “Set as Current”
4. The global PHP version is now changed

You can verify with:

php -v

Or using the CLI:

loom current

Working with the CLI

The loom CLI provides quick access to Envloom features from the command line.

Useful Commands

# Show current runtime versions
loom current

# List available PHP versions
loom list php

# List available Node.js versions
loom list node

# Link current directory as a site
loom link

# Unlink the site in current directory
loom unlink

# Enable SSL for current directory site
loom ssl on

# Disable SSL for current directory site
loom ssl off

# Switch global PHP version
loom php 8.2

# Switch global Node.js version
loom node 20

CLI Workflow Example

Here’s a typical workflow using the CLI:

# Navigate to your projects directory
cd C:\Users\YourName\Projects

# Create a new Laravel project manually
composer create-project laravel/laravel my-new-app
cd my-new-app

# Link it to Envloom
loom link

# Enable SSL
loom ssl on

# Open in browser
start https://my-new-app.test

Managing Services

Start and Stop Services

You can control services from:

Desktop App:

• Use the Start all / Stop all buttons on the Dashboard
• Individual service controls on each runtime page

System Tray:

• Right-click the Envloom tray icon
• Select Start all or Stop all

Service Auto-Start:

• Go to Settings
• Enable Auto-start services to automatically start PHP-FPM, Nginx, and MariaDB when Envloom launches

Viewing Logs

If something isn’t working, check the logs:

1. Open Logs Page

   Click on Logs in the Envloom sidebar.

2. Select Log Source

   Choose the log type to view:

   • Runtime: Envloom internal operations
   • PHP: PHP errors by version
   • Nginx: Nginx access and error logs (global and per-site)
   • MariaDB: Database errors and queries
3. Review Errors

   Use the log viewer to identify issues. Common problems include:

   • Port conflicts (another service using port 80 or 3306)
   • PHP syntax errors in your application
   • Missing PHP extensions
   • Database connection failures

Next Steps

Now that you have your first site running, explore more Envloom features:

Runtime Management

Install multiple PHP, Node.js, MariaDB versions and switch between them

Sites Configuration

Learn advanced site configuration options and per-site settings

CLI Reference

Master the Envloom CLI for faster development workflows

Troubleshooting

Solutions to common issues and error messages

Pro Tip: Pin commonly used sites to your browser bookmarks, and use the system tray menu to quickly open them. Right-click the Envloom icon → Sites → Your Site Name.