Laravel Nova

# Installation

# Requirements

Laravel Nova has a few requirements you should be aware of before installing:

  • Composer
  • Laravel Framework 5.6+
  • Laravel Mix
  • Node.js & NPM

# Browser Support

Nova supports reasonably recent versions of the following browsers:

  • Google Chrome
  • Apple Safari
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Mozilla Firefox

# Installing Nova

Once you have purchased a Nova license, you may download a Nova release from the "releases" section of the Nova website. After downloading a Zip file containing the Nova source code, you will need to install it as a Composer "path" repository within your Laravel application's composer.json file.

First, unzip the contents of the Nova release into a nova directory within your application's root directory. Once you have unzipped and placed the Nova source code within the appropriate directory, you are ready to update your composer.json file. You should add the following configuration to the file:

"repositories": [
    {
        "type": "path",
        "url": "./nova"
    }
],

Hidden Files

When unzipping Nova into your application's nova directory, make sure all of Nova's "hidden" files (such as its .gitignore file) are included.

Next, add laravel/nova to the require section of your composer.json file:

"require": {
    "php": "^7.1.3",
    "fideloper/proxy": "^4.0",
    "laravel/framework": "5.7.*",
    "laravel/nova": "*"
},

After your composer.json file has been updated, run the composer update command in your console terminal:

composer update

Package Stability

If you are not able to install Nova into your application because of your minimum-stability setting, consider setting your minimum-stability option to dev and your prefer-stable option to true. This will allow you to install Nova while still preferring stable package releases for your application.

Finally, run the nova:install and migrate Artisan commands. The nova:install command will install Nova's service provider and public assets within your application:

php artisan nova:install

php artisan migrate

After running this command, verify that the App\Providers\NovaServiceProvider was added to the providers array in your app configuration file. If it wasn't, you should add it manually. If your application does not use the App namespace, you should update the provider class name as needed.

The default App\Nova\User Nova resource references the App\User model. If you place your models in a different directory or namespace, you should adjust this value within the resource:

public static $model = 'App\\Models\\User';

That's it! Next, you may navigate to your application's /nova path in your browser and you should be greeted with the Nova dashboard which includes links to various parts of this documentation.

# Installing Nova Via Composer

Instead of downloading Zip files containing the Nova source code, you may also install Nova as a typical Nova package via our private Satis repository. To get started, add the Nova repository to your application's composer.json file:

"repositories": [
    {
        "type": "composer",
        "url": "https://nova.laravel.com"
    }
],

Next, you may add laravel/nova to your list of required packages in your composer.json file:

"require": {
    "php": "^7.1.3",
    "fideloper/proxy": "^4.0",
    "laravel/framework": "5.6.*",
    "laravel/nova": "~1.0"
},

After your composer.json file has been updated, run the composer update command in your console terminal:

composer update

Composer Authentication

When running composer update, you will be prompted to provide your login credentials for the Nova website. These credentials will authenticate your Composer session as having permission to download the Nova source code. To avoid manually typing these credentials, you may create a Composer auth.json file (opens new window) while optionally using your API token (opens new window) in place of your password.

Finally, run the nova:install and migrate Artisan commands. The nova:install command will install Nova's service provider and public assets within your application:

php artisan nova:install

php artisan migrate

After running this command, verify that the App\Providers\NovaServiceProvider was added to the providers array in your app configuration file. If it wasn't, you should add it manually. If your application does not use the App namespace, you should update the provider class name as needed.

The default App\Nova\User Nova resource references the App\User model. If you place your models in a different directory or namespace, you should adjust this value within the resource:

public static $model = 'App\\Models\\User';

If you don't have a Nova admin user yet in your users table, you can add one by running the nova:user Artisan command and following the prompts:

php artisan nova:user

That's it! Next, you may navigate to your application's /nova path in your browser and you should be greeted with the Nova dashboard which includes links to various parts of this documentation.

# Customizing Nova's Authentication Guard

Nova uses the default authentication guard defined in you auth configuration file. If you'd like to customize this guard you may set the guard value inside of Nova's configuration.

# Authorizing Nova

Within your app/Providers/NovaServiceProvider.php file, there is a gate method. This authorization gate controls access to Nova in non-local environments. By default, any user can access the Nova dashboard when the current application environment is local. You are free to modify this gate as needed to restrict access to your Nova installation:

/**
 * Register the Nova gate.
 *
 * This gate determines who can access Nova in non-local environments.
 *
 * @return void
 */
protected function gate()
{
    Gate::define('viewNova', function ($user) {
        return in_array($user->email, [
            '[email protected]',
        ]);
    });
}

# Updating Nova

To update your Nova installation, you may simply download a release Zip file from the Nova website.

Composer Installations

If you installed Nova via Composer, you may update Nova using composer update, just like any other Composer package.

After downloading the Zip file, replace the current contents of your application's nova directory with the contents of the Zip file. After updating the directory's contents, you may run the composer update and nova:publish commands:

composer update

php artisan nova:publish

The nova:publish command will re-publish Nova's public assets, configuration, views, and language files. This command will not overwrite any existing configuration, views, or language files. If you would like the command to overwrite existing files, you may use the --force flag when executing the command:

php artisan nova:publish --force

php artisan view:clear

# Bug Reports

If you discover a bug in Laravel Nova, please open an issue on the Nova issues GitHub repository (opens new window).

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