Create and configure a Laravel project with PhpStorm

Question

I am quite buzzed with the whole Homestead stuff and how it correlates with an IDE. Let's say I have my PhpStorm installed in ~/Developer/PhpStorm The Homestead is in ~/Developer/Homestead. This is how my YAML file in Homestead looks like:

authorize: ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

keys:
    - ~/.ssh/id_rsa

folders:
    - map: ~/Developer/Homestead/workspace
      to: /home/vagrant/Code

sites:
    - map: helloworld.app
      to: /home/vagrant/Code/Laravel/public

variables:
    - key: APP_ENV
      value: local

So, you see that I have a workspace folder in the Homestead directory. I also have another directory: ~/Developer/workspace/PHP where I am planning to store my projects, instead of in the Homestead folder.

I installed the Laravel plugin in PhpStorm. And, in order for the Laravel plugin to work in PhpStorm, this generated file is needed. My questions are:

Where exactly should I put the _ide_helper.php file so that PhpStorm works properly with Laravel? Should I paste it in each project or just once somewhere?
Do I have to write a different app name in the YAML sites: map field for every project that I want to be launching atm?
How do I create a new Laravel type project. As when I go for creating a new project in PhpStorm, there are types of which I can choose - should I also have Laravel listed there, because I do not? Because now, when I create a new PHP project - it's completely empty. And I suppose a Laravel project should have some architecture and generated files.
I beg of a simple explanation of all this Laravel + Homestead stuff and Vagrant and how to control my projects, because I am getting very frustrated and I have to start working with these technologies on my Bachelor project soon.

I can recommend you to use Laravel plugin for PhpStorm instead of helper: much easier and it's creator constantly improving the plugin. https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/7532?pr=phpStorm — Kootli, Nov 20 '14 at 14:02
@Kootli - that is what I have installed already. But still the helper is needed. It is even mentioned in the plugin's installation guide. :) — Milkncookiez, Nov 20 '14 at 14:36
About your first question: Just copy the helper file to your project root and synchronize — Kootli, Nov 20 '14 at 14:43

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 20 '14 at 20:40

You shouldn't need to put the _ide_helper.php file anywhere manually, it is automatically generated by the Artisan command. For each new project, include the IDE helper in that project's composer.json file:
```
"require-dev": {
    "barryvdh/laravel-ide-helper": "1.*"
}
```
Add the service provider to the providers array in the config.php file of your Laravel project:
```
'Barryvdh\LaravelIdeHelper\IdeHelperServiceProvider'
```
Then use Artisan to generate the _ide_helper.php file for the project (run this command from the terminal in the root of your Laravel project directory):
```
php artisan ide-helper:generate
```
This is all paraphrased from the instructions on the IDE Helper GitHub page. I would recommend following those instructions to also set up your composer.json file to auto-generate a new _ide_helper.php whenever composer updates.

Yes. For each individual Laravel project, you'll need to update your sites mapping in the YAML file. For my projects, I use this scheme (note that you are mapping to the location relative to your Vagrant box):
```
sites:
    - map: local.project.example.com
      to: /home/vagrant/Projects/project/public
```
Then in your Homestead directory, run:
```
vagrant provision
```
You will also need to update your hosts file to point to the Vagrant box.
```
sudo nano /etc/hosts
```
Add the line:
```
127.0.0.1           local.project.example.com
```
Now you should be able to access this Laravel project by hitting: local.project.example.com:8000 in your web browser.

Assuming you followed the Laravel installation instructions, the easiest way is to use the Laravel command in the terminal. To create a new Laravel project called "blog", navigate to ~/Developer/workspace/PHP and run the command:
```
laravel new blog
```

I hope the above answers get you started down the right path. The most important thing is to carefully read the Laravel documentation as it covers everything I just did but in much greater detail.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 28 '15 at 18:06

thanks Mike Andersen, you have put me on correct way, but your solution number 1 don't work for me (using Laravel 5).

You have to run "composer update" after making changes to composer.json file. But, when i have doed, i got this error:

barryvdh/laravel-ide-helper v1.2.1 requires phpdocumentor/reflection-docblock dev-master#6d705c1a0f9e2a6d73d2e9ec0e538b9dfaf4315f -> no matching package found.

I have got another solution:

remove line about "barryvdh/laravel-ide-helper" from require array on composer.json file.
run the next line: composer require barryvdh/laravel-ide-helper

Then you can follow the steps proposed by Mike Andersen:

Add the service provider to the providers array in the config.php file of your Laravel project:

Barryvdh\LaravelIdeHelper\IdeHelperServiceProvider
Then use Artisan to generate the _ide_helper.php file for the project (run this command from the terminal in the root of your Laravel project directory):

php artisan ide-helper:generate
Open your project on phpStorm and go to: File|Synchronize.

And you will got your laravel project updated with the last version of barryvdh/laravel-ide-helper extension

(More info: https://github.com/barryvdh/laravel-ide-helper)

Create and configure a Laravel project with PhpStorm

2 Answers2