Real World Docker Project

In this final lesson by Online Learner, you will build and deploy a complete Laravel application using Docker with Nginx, PHP-FPM, and MySQL. This project simulates a real-world production-like setup.

Project Overview

• Laravel application (PHP)
• Nginx web server
• MySQL database
• Docker Compose for orchestration

Project Structure

docker-laravel/
├── docker/
│   └── nginx/
│       └── default.conf
├── Dockerfile
├── docker-compose.yml
├── .env
└── Laravel project files

Step 1: Dockerfile

FROM php:8.2-fpm

RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y 
    git curl zip unzip libpng-dev libonig-dev libxml2-dev

RUN docker-php-ext-install pdo_mysql mbstring exif pcntl bcmath gd

COPY --from=composer:latest /usr/bin/composer /usr/bin/composer

WORKDIR /var/www/html

COPY . .

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

RUN chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html

EXPOSE 9000

CMD ["php-fpm"]

Step 2: Nginx Configuration

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name localhost;

    root /var/www/html/public;
    index index.php index.html;

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

    location ~ .php$ {
        fastcgi_pass app:9000;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
    }
}

Step 3: docker-compose.yml

version: "3.9"

services:
  app:
    build: .
    container_name: laravel-app
    volumes:
      - .:/var/www/html
    networks:
      - app-network

  nginx:
    image: nginx:latest
    container_name: laravel-nginx
    ports:
      - "8080:80"
    volumes:
      - .:/var/www/html
      - ./docker/nginx/default.conf:/etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
    networks:
      - app-network

  mysql:
    image: mysql:8.0
    container_name: laravel-mysql
    restart: always
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: secret
      MYSQL_DATABASE: laravel_db
      MYSQL_USER: laravel
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: laravel123
    volumes:
      - mysql-data:/var/lib/mysql
    networks:
      - app-network

networks:
  app-network:

volumes:
  mysql-data:

Step 4: Configure Laravel .env

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=mysql
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=laravel_db
DB_USERNAME=laravel
DB_PASSWORD=laravel123

Step 5: Run the Project

# Start containers
docker compose up -d

# Run migrations
docker compose exec app php artisan migrate

# Generate app key
docker compose exec app php artisan key:generate

Open your browser:

http://localhost:8080

Common Commands

# Stop containers
docker compose down

# View logs
docker compose logs -f

# Access app container
docker compose exec app bash

Real World Tips

• Use Docker volumes for persistent database storage.
• Use .env files for configuration management.
• Use Nginx as reverse proxy for performance.
• Use multi-stage builds for optimized images.

Summary

• You built a complete Laravel app using Docker.
• Used Docker Compose to manage multiple services.
• Connected Nginx, PHP, and MySQL containers.
• This setup is similar to real-world production environments.