Connecting a Database to Laravel: A Step-by-Step Guide

Tags: Laravel, Database, SQLite

Welcome to this tutorial on connecting a database to Laravel! In this guide, we will walk you through the process of setting up and configuring a database for your Laravel application. Additionally, we will explore how to accept user input, store data in the database using forms, and visualize the stored data. Furthermore, we will discuss how to leverage dynamic routes to utilize data from the database.

To get started, let’s connect the database to Laravel. For our purposes, we will be using SQLite, which is a simple file-based database requiring no complex setup.

Here’s how you can do it:

Step 1: Open the .env file in your Laravel project.

Step 2: Locate the default database configuration section, which looks like this:

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=laravel
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=

Step 3: Replace the above configuration with the following line:

DB_CONNECTION=sqlite

By specifying DB_CONNECTION=sqlite, Laravel will automatically create a SQLite database file named database.sqlite in the database directory the first time you run a migration.

That’s it! You have successfully connected a database to Laravel using SQLite. With this setup, you can begin storing and retrieving data from your Laravel application.

Stay tuned for the next part of the Laravel Handbook, where we will delve into using forms to accept user input and store data in the connected database.