Run Laravel on your browser with Browser PHP

TL;DR: How to set up a Laravel project using only the Node Browser PHP and PHP WASM packages.

You will find a link to a CodeSandbox Demo or the source code via this Github Repository. Learn more on Capsules or X.

First and foremost, it's worth mentioning that PHP is primarily a server-side scripting language, and this article may not appeal to purists. However, it stems from a simple question: How can a PHP script be executed on the client side? Browser PHP is the outcome of this reflexion.

Browser PHP provides a collection of commands to execute PHP from the Node command-line interface or to launch a PHP server from Node. Perfect for running a Laravel project in CodeSandbox, for example.

This package is experimental and under continuous development. It was created with the purpose of accessing PHP functionalities from a browser. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to use it exclusively in a development environment.

This article suggests creating a Laravel project without access to the PHP executable. Starting from the Browser PHP package and providing Composer. The steps are as follows :

Create a temp directory and install browser-php :

mkdir temp

cd temp

npm install browser-php

browser-php will install the composer binary in the vendor/bin directory.

Now, you need to make php and composer available to npm in the package.json file.

temp/package.json

  "scripts" : {
       "php" : "php",
       "composer" : "php --disable-functions vendor/bin/composer"
  }

• disable-functions indicates to vendor/bin/composer that the functions proc_open, popen, curl_exec, and curl_multi_exec are inactive. In reality, they do not exist in php-wasm.

npm run composer

> composer
> php --disable-functions vendor/bin/composer

   ______
  / ____/___  ____ ___  ____  ____  ________  _____
 / /   / __ \/ __ `__ \/ __ \/ __ \/ ___/ _ \/ ___/
/ /___/ /_/ / / / / / / /_/ / /_/ (__  )  __/ /
\____/\____/_/ /_/ /_/ .___/\____/____/\___/_/
                    /_/
Composer version 2.7.1 2024-02-09 15:26:28

With Composer now accessible, it's time to create a new Laravel project.

npm run composer create-project -- --no-scripts --ignore-platform-reqs laravel/laravel ../laravel

• no-scripts helps to avoid a PHP not found error. The scripts listed in the composer.json file require the PHP executable.
• ignore-platform-reqs silences errors related to the absence of PHP extensions.

  ...

  - Installing spatie/flare-client-php (1.4.4): Extracting archive
  - Installing spatie/ignition (1.12.0): Extracting archive
  - Installing spatie/laravel-ignition (2.4.2): Extracting archive
    0 [>---------------------------]    0 [->--------------------------]
65 package suggestions were added by new dependencies, use `composer suggest` to see details.
Generating optimized autoload files
83 packages you are using are looking for funding.
Use the `composer fund` command to find out more!
No security vulnerability advisories found.

The Laravel project has been created ! 🎉

A few small tasks need to be done to apply browser-php to an existing Laravel project. The recently created project will serve as the base. However, initially, you need to delete the temp directory and install browser-php.

rm -rf temp 

cd laravel

npm install --save-dev browser-php

The scripts in the composer.json file can also be cleaned up.

laravel/composer.json

"scripts": {
    "post-autoload-dump": [
       "Illuminate\\Foundation\\ComposerScripts::postAutoloadDump"
    ]
},

To be able to execute artisan, you need to apply a umask(577). This will give file permissions to artisan.

laravel/artisan

#!/usr/bin/env php
<?php

umask(577);

define('LARAVEL_START', microtime(true));

...

npm run php artisan inspire

> php
> php artisan inspire

  “ Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law. ”
  — Immanuel Kant

It's time to see the result of setting up the Laravel project. To do this, copy the .env.example file to .env and run the key:generate command using the newly accessible artisan.

cp .env.example .env && npm run php artisan key:generate

> php
> php artisan key:generate

   INFO  Application key set successfully.

The new script serve from browser-php will launch a PHP server on localhost:2222.

"scripts" : {
    "serve": "serve",
}

npm run build && npm run serve

> build
> serve

   PHP server is listening on localhost:2222

Great... But now, why? Well, to enable the visualization of Capsules Codes articles on CodeSandbox! And to launch a Laravel project on CodeSandbox, here are the steps to follow :

npm install --save-dev browser-php

package.json

"scripts": {
	  "dev": "vite",
	  "build": "vite build",
	  "php" : "php",
	  "serve" : "vite & serve",
	  "composer" : "php --disable-functions vendor/bin/composer"
},

.env

BROWSER_PHP_SERVER_HOST="https://localhost"
BROWSER_PHP_SERVER_PORT=2222

vite.config.js

server : { host : 'localhost' }

artisan

#!/usr/bin/env php
<?php

umask(577);

define('LARAVEL_START', microtime(true));

...

.codesandbox/tasks.json

{
    "$schema" : "https://codesandbox.io/schemas/tasks.json",
    "setupTasks" : [
        { "name" : "Install Node Dependencies", "command" : "npm install" },
        { "name" : "Install PHP Dependencies", "command" : "npm run composer install -- --ignore-platform-reqs --no-scripts" },
        { "name" : "Prepare Environment Variables", "command" : "cp .env.example .env && npm run php artisan key:generate" }
    ],
    "tasks" : {
        "dev" : { "name" : "Start Dev and PHP Server", "command" : "npm run serve", "preview" : { "port" : 2222 }, "runAtStart": true }
    }
}

And now, What about offering a demonstration of an issue or a pull request? A good demonstration may be worth more than a lengthy description.

Glad this helped.