Deploying the live preview

The AdminLTE 4 for Laravel preview is a full Laravel application (not a static export), so it runs on a normal PHP host — e.g. an SSH preview server behind Nginx + PHP-FPM. This guide stands up a browsable demo with every feature working (charts, ⌘K palette, scaffolded sections, the in-app docs).

Server requirements

1. Create the preview app

composer create-project laravel/laravel adminlte-preview
cd adminlte-preview
composer require colorlibhq/adminlte-laravel

2. Install AdminLTE + build assets

php artisan adminlte:install          # publishes config/stubs, npm deps, vendor files
# add the two entries to vite.config.js (see installation.md), then:
npm ci
npm run build

3. Scaffold the full demo

php artisan adminlte:make-auth                 # login/register/etc.
php artisan adminlte:scaffold --all --seed     # all DB-backed sections + demo data
php artisan migrate --force

4. Seed a demo user

The dashboard sits behind auth. Create a known demo account:

php artisan tinker --execute="\App\Models\User::firstOrCreate(
    ['email' => '[email protected]'],
    ['name' => 'Demo User', 'password' => bcrypt('password')]
);"

5. Environment & optimisation

APP_ENV=production
APP_DEBUG=false
APP_URL=https://laravel.adminlte.io

The preview is hosted on a dedicated subdomain (laravel.adminlte.io), alongside the other Laravel template previews — the clean, recommended setup (no ASSET_URL or base-path rewriting needed). A sub-path mount is possible but fiddlier; see the note at the end of §7.

php artisan key:generate
php artisan config:cache
php artisan route:cache
php artisan view:cache
chmod -R ug+rw storage bootstrap/cache

6. Make it publicly browsable (preview only)

A public demo should let visitors in without a password. Pick one:

Option A — auto-login a demo user (recommended)

Add this to the preview app's routes/web.php, gated by an env flag so it never ships to a real app:

// routes/web.php  — PREVIEW ONLY
if (env('APP_DEMO', false)) {
    Route::get('/preview-login', function () {
        auth()->login(\App\Models\User::firstWhere('email', '[email protected]'));
        return redirect('/');
    });
}

Set APP_DEMO=true in .env, then send visitors to /preview-login once (or link it from your landing page). They land on the full dashboard with a real session and can browse everything.

Option B — show the demo credentials

Leave auth intact and add a banner to the login page (resources/views/ vendor/adminlte/auth/login.blade.php after php artisan adminlte:install --only=views) telling visitors to log in with [email protected] / password.

Both options are for the public preview only. Never enable APP_DEMO or ship auto-login in a production application.

7. Nginx + PHP-FPM (subdomain — recommended)

Host on the dedicated subdomain laravel.adminlte.io, alongside the other Laravel template previews. Point its document root at the app's public/:

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name laravel.adminlte.io;
    root /var/www/laravel.adminlte.io/public;

    # ssl_certificate ... (Let's Encrypt / your CA)

    index index.php;
    charset utf-8;

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

    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $realpath_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }

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

Add the DNS record (laravel A/CNAME → the preview server) and issue a TLS cert (certbot --nginx -d laravel.adminlte.io). That's the whole setup — no ASSET_URL or path rewriting required.

Sub-path instead? Mounting under adminlte.io/themes/laravel/ is possible (Nginx alias + ASSET_URL set to the full sub-path + a rewrite to index.php), but it's noticeably more fragile for a Laravel app. Prefer the subdomain unless you can't add DNS records.

8. Quick alternative — php artisan serve behind a proxy

For a throwaway preview you can skip PHP-FPM and run the built-in server under a process manager, proxied by Nginx:

# supervisor / systemd unit
php artisan serve --host=127.0.0.1 --port=8000

location / { proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000; proxy_set_header Host $host; }

Other hosting options

Laravel Forge / managed hosting

Point Forge (or Ploi/RunCloud) at the repo and use this deploy script — it covers the build, migrations, and caching in one pass:

composer install --optimize-autoloader --no-dev
npm ci && npm run build
php artisan migrate --force
php artisan config:cache && php artisan route:cache && php artisan view:cache

Add [email protected] + APP_DEMO=true (step 4 & 6) to the environment so the public demo works, and set the site's web root to public/.

Docker

FROM php:8.3-fpm AS app
WORKDIR /var/www/html
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y nodejs npm \
    && docker-php-ext-install pdo pdo_mysql bcmath
COPY composer.json composer.lock ./
RUN composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci
COPY . .
RUN npm run build \
    && php artisan config:cache && php artisan route:cache && php artisan view:cache

Serve public/ with Nginx (see §7) in front of the PHP-FPM container.

Updating the preview

git pull            # or composer update colorlibhq/adminlte-laravel
composer install --no-dev -o
npm ci && npm run build
php artisan migrate --force
php artisan config:cache && php artisan route:cache && php artisan view:cache

Checklist

• public/ is the web root
• npm run build ran (the build/ manifest exists)
• public/vendor/* plugin files present (adminlte:install copies them)
• APP_KEY set, APP_DEBUG=false
• demo user seeded; APP_DEMO//preview-login wired if you want a public demo
• storage/ and bootstrap/cache/ writable