07 Oct
2016

Installing Laravel 5.2 on Mac OS X with MAMP
Okay you would have to be living on a different planet not to be aware of the MVC framework called Laravel, but unlike other MVC's it not a simple case of download and install. It requires the use of the Mac OS X terminal and it is fairly easy. Here is a step by step 'how to' for using with MAMP.
Now before I begin I am guessing that you already having pre-installed MAMP. If not best to get started by downloading and installing it using this link - MAMP.
Step 1:
Check which version of php is running
Before starting anything make sure you have quit MAMP and it's not running. Mac OS X already has a default Apache and php version installed which are required to install Laravel. So we need to make sure if php needs updating or not, since Laravel 5.2 needs a minimum of php 5.6 upwards. So start by opening the terminal and add the following to make sure Apache is up and running.
sudo /usr/sbin/apachectl start
Then check the version of php.
php -v
The first line of the data output should show the php version. If the output is lower than 5.6 then add the following to the terminal, or jump to Step 2.
curl -s https://php-osx.liip.ch/install.sh | bash -s 5.6
It will then ask for your password and the installing process will start which may take a while to complete. Once done restart apache via the terminal (You can't run both versions of this Apache and MAMP's Apache).
sudo /usr/sbin/apachectl restart
Step 2:
Download and Install composer
Now Laravel uses composer to manage its dependencies. So at first let's locate the htdocs folder by entering the following in the terminal.
cd /Applications/MAMP/htdocs
Then download and install the composer inside the MAMP htdocs folder by entering the following.
curl -sS http://getcomposer.org/installer | php
NOTE: You may want to create a shortcut for 'composer' to save you having to reinstall it every time - so best to read this other article - Install Composer and make a shortcut on Mac OS X
Step 3:
Download and Install Laravel
Okay now it's time to install Laravel. Again still in the terminal input the following.
php composer.phar create-project laravel/laravel --prefer-dist
Or if you want to define a folder name use this instead
php composer.phar create-project laravel/laravel folder-name
Or if you want to define a folder name and the version of Laravel - for this example 5.2.
php composer.phar create-project laravel/laravel folder-name "5.2.*" --prefer-dist
Terminal should start listing several components of Laravel as it downloads, such as symphony and sebastian etc.
Step 4:
Download and Install Laravel Forms and HTML components
One thing to note when installing Laravel 5.2, that by default it doesn't install the 'Forms and HTML components'. So if you want to do this (which I would suggest you do) then you will need to do the following.
Goto the root folder which contains the app folder and resources folder etc. Open the composer.json file and edit the following.
"require": {
"php": ">=5.5.9",
"laravel/framework": "5.2.*"
},
to
"require": {
"php": ">=5.5.9",
"laravel/framework": "5.2.*",
"laravelcollective/html": "5.2.*"
},
Now back in the terminal type the following to get the new Laravel folder installation directory.
cd /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/laravel
Then input this, which will update the version of Laravel with our amended composer.json file.
php /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/composer.phar update
The terminal should show the following output to show its complete.
Loading composer repositories with package information
Updating dependencies (including require-dev)
- Installing laravelcollective/html (v5.2.4)
Downloading: 100%
Writing lock file
Generating autoload files
Step 5:
Start MAMP and preview Laravel
Before running MAMP you will need to stop the other version of Apache so input the following, which will require a password.
sudo /usr/sbin/apachectl stop
So now its okay to start MAMP. In order to run Laravel 5, MAMP needs to be running a minimum version of php 5.6. If you have installed the latest version of MAMP it should have this by default. But here is how to check which version is running. Open MAMP and choose the Preferences tab.
NOTE: Always check with the hosting/server provider that they are running this version of php or upwards as well. Some may not even allow Laravel to run at all!
Then press the PHP tab and see which checkbox is highlighted. By default is should be set to Version 5.6.25 - this should be okay for Laravel.
Enter the following in the browser window which opens. Either http://localhost:8888/laravel/public/ or http://localhost/laravel/public/.
You should now see the default Laravel install page. So as you can see it's fairly easy... Enjoy.


me@grafxflow
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16 Thoughts
15 Apr
2017
Tom
Thanks for sharing this, it helped me a lot!15 Apr
2017
me@grafxflow
Glad to help17 Apr
2017
Farghana Hussain
Best tutorial for Laravel. thanks a lot!17 Apr
2017
me@grafxflow
:)02 May
2017
husnain sultan
when i update the version of Laravel with our amended composer.json file at step #4. it says could not find a composer.json file in /any ideas?
02 May
2017
me@grafxflow
Hi Husnain,Is the composer file in the /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/laravel directory?
What are both the directories that contains the 'composer.phar' and the amended 'composer.json' file?
29 Jun
2017
NetLicensing.io
Nice article, thank you!An easy way to try out Laravel in action is to use Laravel 5 Boilerplate / Starter Kit - https://github.com/Labs64/laravel-boilerplate
This is also offering Docker container, with this you don’t need a local PHP (composer, node.js, etc.) environment.
09 Jul
2017
Lyndon
i love this tutorial! thanks a lot!09 Aug
2017
James Sizemore
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!03 Jan
2018
kojiromusashi
Thank you for this22 Jan
2018
Zahra
Thank you for your complete guide!23 Jan
2018
Muga
Yeahy finally!!! This was very much helpful10 May
2018
James
This is the third tutorial I've tried to follow to install Laravel with MAMP. Every single one ends the same way - everything seems to work successfully, but then when I go to visit the default Laravel page at http://localhost:8888/laravel/public/ I get a 500 error. The other sites on Localhost load fine.How do I fix this? Thanks!
11 May
2018
me@grafxflow
Hi James,Just checking are you restarting MAMP after installation.
Also this is an old tutorial - with the latest version of Laravel you need php 7.1.3 installed.
Plus do you have the specs of MAMP?
It might be worth seeing if there are errors listed in laravel.log or /Applications/MAMP/logs/php_error.log or apache_error.log if it exists.
Get back to me and I will try and help.
13 May
2018
James
Awesome - it turns out it was a PHP version issue - I upgraded MAMP to the latest version which came with the latest version of PHP, re-followed your instructions, and it worked :-)Thanks so much for your help!
13 May
2018
me@grafxflow
Great always glad to help :)