RentDesk — Installation Guide

1

System Requirements

🐘

PHP

8.2 or higher

📦

Node.js

18.x or higher + npm

🗄️

MySQL / MariaDB

8.0+ / 10.3+ recommended

🌐

Web Server

Apache 2.4+ or Nginx

🔧

Composer

2.x (PHP dependency manager)

📋

PHP Extensions

BCMath, Ctype, JSON, Mbstring, OpenSSL, PDO, Tokenizer, XML, Fileinfo, cURL

2

Quick Install (One Command)

⚡ Fastest Way to Install

If you've already configured your .env file, run this single command to set everything up:

Terminal

composer setup

💡

This command runs: composer install → copy .env → generate key → run migrations → npm install → npm run build. You still need to configure your .env database credentials BEFORE running this.

3

Step-by-Step Installation

1

Upload Files to Server

Upload all project files to your server using FTP, Git, or file manager. Place them in your desired directory.

Option A: Git Clone

# Clone to your web directory
cd /var/www
git clone https://your-repo-url.git rentdesk
cd rentdesk

Option B: Upload ZIP

# Extract uploaded ZIP file
unzip rentdesk.zip -d /var/www/rentdesk
cd /var/www/rentdesk

2

Install PHP Dependencies

Install all Laravel and PHP packages via Composer.

Terminal

composer install --optimize-autoloader --no-dev

⚠️

Use --no-dev on production servers to skip development-only packages (PHPUnit, Faker, etc.).

3

Configure Environment

Copy the example environment file and generate the application encryption key.

Terminal

# Copy env file
cp .env.example .env

# Generate application key
php artisan key:generate

Now edit the .env file with your server settings (see Section 4 below).

4

Create Database

Create a MySQL database for RentDesk.

MySQL

CREATE DATABASE rentdesk CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER 'rentdesk_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'YourStrongPassword';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON rentdesk.* TO 'rentdesk_user'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

💡

On cPanel, use the MySQL Databases section to create the database and user through the GUI instead.

5

Run Migrations & Seed

Create all database tables and seed default data (admin user, settings, categories).

Terminal

# Run migrations
php artisan migrate --force

# Seed default data (admin user, settings, categories)
php artisan db:seed --force

✅

Default Admin Login:
Email: admin@rentdesk.com
Password: password

⚠️ Change this password immediately after first login!

6

Install Node Dependencies & Build Frontend

Install JavaScript packages and compile the React frontend for production.

Terminal

# Install Node.js packages
npm install

# Build for production
npm run build

7

Create Storage Link

Link the storage directory for file uploads (receipts, proofs, etc.).

Terminal

php artisan storage:link

8

Optimize for Production

Cache configuration, routes, and views for maximum performance.

Terminal

# Cache everything for production
php artisan config:cache
php artisan route:cache
php artisan view:cache
php artisan icons:cache

# Or use the optimize shortcut
php artisan optimize

4

Environment Configuration

🔑 Essential Settings in `.env`

Variable	Production Value	Description
APP_NAME	`RentDesk`	Your application name
APP_ENV	`production`	Must be "production" on live server
APP_DEBUG	`false`	⚠️ MUST be false in production
APP_URL	`https://yourdomain.com`	Your full domain URL with https
DB_CONNECTION	`mysql`	Database driver
DB_HOST	`127.0.0.1`	Database host (usually localhost)
DB_PORT	`3306`	MySQL default port
DB_DATABASE	`rentdesk`	Database name you created
DB_USERNAME	`rentdesk_user`	Database username
DB_PASSWORD	`YourStrongPassword`	Database password

Sample Production .env

APP_NAME=RentDesk
APP_ENV=production
APP_KEY=# Auto-generated by php artisan key:generate
APP_DEBUG=false
APP_URL=https://yourdomain.com

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=rentdesk
DB_USERNAME=rentdesk_user
DB_PASSWORD=YourSecurePassword123!

SESSION_DRIVER=database
CACHE_STORE=database
QUEUE_CONNECTION=database

VITE_APP_NAME="${APP_NAME}"

5

Web Server Configuration

🔒

CRITICAL: Your web server's document root must point to the public/ directory, NOT the project root. This prevents exposing sensitive files like .env.

Apache Virtual Host

/etc/apache2/sites-available/rentdesk.conf

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName    yourdomain.com
    ServerAlias   www.yourdomain.com
    DocumentRoot  /var/www/rentdesk/public

    <Directory /var/www/rentdesk/public>
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog  ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/rentdesk-error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/rentdesk-access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Enable Site

sudo a2ensite rentdesk.conf
sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo systemctl restart apache2

Nginx Server Block

/etc/nginx/sites-available/rentdesk

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name yourdomain.com www.yourdomain.com;
    root /var/www/rentdesk/public;

    add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";
    add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff";

    index index.php;
    charset utf-8;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location = /favicon.ico { access_log off; log_not_found off; }
    location = /robots.txt  { access_log off; log_not_found off; }

    error_page 404 /index.php;

    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $realpath_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }

    location ~ /\.(?!well-known).* {
        deny all;
    }
}

Enable Site

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/rentdesk /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl restart nginx

cPanel Shared Hosting Setup

1

Upload Files

Upload all files to a folder ABOVE public_html, e.g., /home/user/rentdesk/

2

Move Public Contents

Copy contents of rentdesk/public/ into public_html/

3

Update index.php Paths

Edit public_html/index.php to update the bootstrap paths:

public_html/index.php

// Change these lines:
require __DIR__.'/../vendor/autoload.php';
// To:
require __DIR__.'/../rentdesk/vendor/autoload.php';

// And:
$app = require_once __DIR__.'/../bootstrap/app.php';
// To:
$app = require_once __DIR__.'/../rentdesk/bootstrap/app.php';

4

Run Commands via SSH or Terminal

Use cPanel Terminal or SSH to run the artisan commands from the rentdesk/ directory.

6

File Permissions

Linux/Mac Permissions

# Set correct ownership (replace www-data with your web server user)
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/rentdesk

# Set directory permissions
sudo find /var/www/rentdesk -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;

# Set file permissions
sudo find /var/www/rentdesk -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

# Make storage and cache writable
sudo chmod -R 775 /var/www/rentdesk/storage
sudo chmod -R 775 /var/www/rentdesk/bootstrap/cache

⚠️

On cPanel shared hosting, the web server user is typically your cPanel username. You may only need to set storage/ and bootstrap/cache/ to 775.

7

Security Checklist

🛡️ Pre-Launch Security Review

Click each item to mark as completed.

✓

APP_DEBUG = false — Never leave debug mode on in production. It exposes environment variables and stack traces.

✓

APP_ENV = production — Enables production optimizations and disables dev-only features.

✓

Change default admin password — Log in with admin@rentdesk.com / password and change immediately.

✓

Document root points to public/ — Never expose the project root. Only public/ should be web-accessible.

✓

.env file is not web-accessible — Test by visiting yourdomain.com/.env — it should return 403 or 404.

✓

HTTPS enabled — Use SSL/TLS certificate (Let's Encrypt is free). Redirect HTTP to HTTPS.

✓

Strong database password — Use a unique, complex password for the database user.

✓

Storage permissions are correct — storage/ and bootstrap/cache/ writable by web server only.

✓

Backup strategy in place — Automate daily database backups and periodic file backups.

8

Troubleshooting

🔴 500 Internal Server Error

Fix

# Check Laravel log for detailed error
tail -f storage/logs/laravel.log

# Make sure storage is writable
chmod -R 775 storage bootstrap/cache

# Clear all caches
php artisan optimize:clear

🔴 Blank White Page

Fix

# Frontend not built — run:
npm run build

# Or check if Vite manifest exists:
ls public/build/manifest.json

🔴 SQLSTATE Connection Refused

Fix

# Verify .env database credentials
# Try DB_HOST=localhost instead of 127.0.0.1 (or vice versa)
# Clear config cache after changing .env:
php artisan config:clear

🔴 Mixed Content / Assets Not Loading

Fix

# Make sure APP_URL uses https://
APP_URL=https://yourdomain.com

# Clear caches
php artisan config:clear
php artisan route:clear

🔴 Styles Look Broken

Fix

# Re-build frontend assets
npm run build

# Clear view cache
php artisan view:clear

🟡 Update / Re-deploy Checklist

After pulling new code

composer install --optimize-autoloader --no-dev
php artisan migrate --force
npm install
npm run build
php artisan optimize

★

Complete Install Commands (Copy All)

Full Installation — Run in order

# 1. Navigate to project directory
cd /var/www/rentdesk

# 2. Install PHP dependencies
composer install --optimize-autoloader --no-dev

# 3. Set up environment
cp .env.example .env
php artisan key:generate

# 4. Edit .env with your database credentials
nano .env

# 5. Run migrations & seed
php artisan migrate --force
php artisan db:seed --force

# 6. Build frontend
npm install
npm run build

# 7. Storage link
php artisan storage:link

# 8. Set permissions
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data .
sudo chmod -R 775 storage bootstrap/cache

# 9. Optimize
php artisan optimize

# ✅ Done! Visit your domain to access RentDesk
# Login: admin@rentdesk.com / password

🏢 RentDesk

System Requirements

Quick Install (One Command)

⚡ Fastest Way to Install

Step-by-Step Installation

Environment Configuration

🔑 Essential Settings in .env

Web Server Configuration

Apache Virtual Host

Nginx Server Block

cPanel Shared Hosting Setup

File Permissions

Security Checklist

🛡️ Pre-Launch Security Review

Troubleshooting

🔴 500 Internal Server Error

🔴 Blank White Page

🔴 SQLSTATE Connection Refused

🔴 Mixed Content / Assets Not Loading

🔴 Styles Look Broken

🟡 Update / Re-deploy Checklist

Complete Install Commands (Copy All)

🔑 Essential Settings in `.env`