Installation Guide

Step 1 — Upload Files

Extract the downloaded ZIP and upload all files to your server. For a clean install at the root of a domain:

public_html/
├── app/
├── bootstrap/
├── config/
├── database/
├── public/          ← point your domain web root here
├── resources/
├── routes/
├── storage/
├── vendor/
└── ...

Step 2 — Install Dependencies

SSH into your server and run:

cd /path/to/viralhub
composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader

Step 3 — Create the Database

Create a MySQL database and user via your hosting panel (cPanel / hPanel / phpMyAdmin), then note the database name, username, and password.

Step 4 — Configure Environment

Copy the example environment file and edit it:

cp .env.example .env
nano .env

Set these values at minimum:

APP_URL=https://yourdomain.com

DB_HOST=localhost
DB_DATABASE=your_database_name
DB_USERNAME=your_db_user
DB_PASSWORD=your_db_password

Step 5 — Generate App Key

php artisan key:generate

Step 6 — Run Migrations & Seed Demo Data

# Migrations only (clean install)
php artisan migrate

# With demo data (recommended for first install)
php artisan migrate --seed

Step 7 — Set Permissions

chmod -R 775 storage bootstrap/cache
chown -R www-data:www-data storage bootstrap/cache

Step 8 — Create Storage Symlink

php artisan storage:link

Step 9 — Configure Web Server

Apache: The included public/.htaccess handles URL rewriting automatically. Make sure mod_rewrite is enabled.

Nginx: Add this to your server block:

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

Step 10 — Log In

Visit https://yourdomain.com — the seeder creates these default accounts:

Go to /admin to access the admin panel. Change the default passwords immediately after login.