Web Server Setup

• Nginx
• Apache
• Shared Hosting (cPanel)
• Queue Worker (Supervisor)
• Cron Job (Scheduler)

{danger.fa-lock} Always point your document root to the public/ directory — never the project root. Exposing .env, app/, or database/ files is a critical security risk.

Nginx

Create /etc/nginx/sites-available/slotara:

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    server_name yourdomain.com www.yourdomain.com;
    root /var/www/slotara/public;

    add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";
    add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff";

    index index.php;
    charset utf-8;

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

    location = /favicon.ico { access_log off; log_not_found off; }
    location = /robots.txt  { access_log off; log_not_found off; }

    error_page 404 /index.php;

    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $realpath_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_hide_header X-Powered-By;
    }

    location ~ /\.(?!well-known).* {
        deny all;
    }
}

Enable and reload:

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/slotara /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
nginx -t && systemctl reload nginx

Add HTTPS with Let's Encrypt (free):

apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx
certbot --nginx -d yourdomain.com -d www.yourdomain.com

Certbot auto-renews the certificate and updates your Nginx config.

Apache

Create /etc/apache2/sites-available/slotara.conf:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName yourdomain.com
    ServerAlias www.yourdomain.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/slotara/public

    <Directory /var/www/slotara/public>
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
        Options -Indexes
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/slotara-error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/slotara-access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

a2ensite slotara.conf
a2enmod rewrite headers
systemctl reload apache2

The project includes a public/.htaccess file that handles URL rewriting. Ensure AllowOverride All is set or Laravel routes won't work.

{warning.fa-exclamation-triangle} If you see 404 Not Found on all routes except /, mod_rewrite is not enabled or AllowOverride All is missing from your Apache config.

Shared Hosting (cPanel)

cPanel doesn't let you change the document root, so you need to restructure the files:

Step 1 — Upload project files:

public_html/        ← contents of slotara/public/ go here
slotara_app/       ← everything else goes here (outside public_html)
  ├── app/
  ├── bootstrap/
  ├── config/
  ├── database/
  ├── vendor/
  └── ...

Step 2 — Edit public_html/index.php:

<?php

use Illuminate\Contracts\Http\Kernel;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;

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

// Change both paths to point to your app folder
require __DIR__.'/../slotara_app/vendor/autoload.php';

$app = require_once __DIR__.'/../slotara_app/bootstrap/app.php';

$kernel = $app->make(Kernel::class);

$response = $kernel->handle(
    $request = Request::capture()
)->send();

$kernel->terminate($request, $response);

Step 3 — Edit public_html/.htaccess: No changes needed — the existing .htaccess handles rewriting.

{primary.fa-info-circle} Also update APP_ROOT in your .env to point to the slotara_app/ folder if path helpers behave unexpectedly.

Queue Worker (Supervisor)

All emails are sent via the queue. Without a running worker, they pile up and never send.

Install Supervisor:

apt install supervisor

Create /etc/supervisor/conf.d/slotara-worker.conf:

[program:slotara-worker]
process_name=%(program_name)s_%(process_num)02d
command=php /var/www/slotara/artisan queue:work --sleep=3 --tries=3 --max-time=3600
autostart=true
autorestart=true
user=www-data
numprocs=1
redirect_stderr=true
stdout_logfile=/var/www/slotara/storage/logs/worker.log
stopwaitsecs=3600

Start the worker:

supervisorctl reread
supervisorctl update
supervisorctl start slotara-worker:*

Check status:

supervisorctl status

{primary.fa-refresh} After each deployment, run supervisorctl restart slotara-worker:* to reload new code into the worker process.

Cron Job (Scheduler)

Slotara uses Laravel's task scheduler for reminder emails. Add one cron entry to run the scheduler every minute:

crontab -e

Add this line:

* * * * * cd /var/www/slotara && php artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1

On cPanel, add a cron job via Cron Jobs in the control panel with the same command.

Without the cron job, booking reminders will not run.