The Fast Path

MediaDesk ships as two projects: a Laravel web application (the website, the admin panel and the REST API) and a Flutter mobile app that talks to that API. Install the web application first; the app needs a running backend with an https:// address before it can be released.

What Is in the Package

Your download contains the Laravel project in Main_Files/WebSourceCode, the Flutter project in Main_Files/AppSourceCode, and this documentation. The Laravel project ships with Blade views and Tailwind CSS 4 / Vite sources. Composer packages (vendor/) and compiled front-end assets (public/build) are not included: you install them once with Composer and npm (step 1 below). The Flutter project ships without build/ folders; flutter pub get and flutter build create them.

1. Install the Backend

1. Create the database

   Create an empty database and a user with full rights on that database only, utf8mb4. The installer refuses a user who can see tables in other databases.

2. Upload and point the domain

   Upload Main_Files/WebSourceCode to the server and point the domain (or a sub-domain) at its public/ folder. Make storage/, bootstrap/cache/ and the project root (for .env) writable by the web user. Inside that folder, install the PHP dependencies and build the front-end assets: composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader, then npm ci && npm run build. Both are required because vendor/ and public/build are not shipped. No SSH on your host? Follow the cPanel Installation guide. Then copy .env.example to .env: without that file the installer answers with a 500 error.

3. Open the installer

   Just open your domain: until the installer has run (no storage/installed lock file and APP_INSTALL not true in .env; the shipped .env.example has APP_INSTALL=false), every page redirects to /install automatically (API calls get a 503 JSON answer). The wizard checks PHP 8.3+ and extensions (curl, fileinfo, exif, mbstring, intl, pdo_mysql, openssl, json, xml, ctype, tokenizer, gd), asks for database credentials and the app URL, then your administrator name, e-mail and password. The database must be empty: a database that already contains tables is refused and left untouched, and .env is not written.

4. Let it run

   It writes .env (production, debug off), runs the migrations (never migrate:fresh, nothing is dropped), seeds roles, permissions, languages, currencies and settings, creates your Super Admin, then locks itself: it writes the lock file storage/installed and sets APP_INSTALL=true in .env. From then on every /install URL answers 404 for good. The site starts empty.

5. Sign in

   Open /login with the administrator you created.

CREATE DATABASE mediadesk CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER 'mediadesk'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'a-strong-password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON mediadesk.* TO 'mediadesk'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

2. First Run

1. Site identity

   Settings → Public site: default language, default skin, site name, tagline and description for each language. Settings → General settings: light and dark logo, favicon.

2. Languages

   Bangla, English, Arabic (RTL) and French are available out of the box. Disable the ones you do not publish in the Language module; add more with their phrase files (details).

3. Mail

   Settings → Integrations → Mail / SMTP, then Test connection or Tools → Diagnostics → Send test email. Until then MAIL_MAILER=log only writes mail to storage/logs/laravel.log. See Mail.

4. Content structure

   Create categories, authors and navigation (Appearance → Navigation, Home layout). Switch off modules you will not use in Platform → Modules.

5. First article

   Content → Articles → New article. Publish it and open /en to see it.

6. Team

   Create staff accounts and assign roles under User Roles. Turn on two-factor authentication for admins in Platform → Security.

3. Scheduler & Queue

Two background pieces are required for newsletters, push, social posts, membership renewals, e-paper PDFs, view counters, ad counters and the finance ledger:

# crontab -e (as the web user)
* * * * * cd /var/www/mediadesk && php artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1

# Supervisor program (see Common Setup for the full file)
php /var/www/mediadesk/artisan queue:work redis --sleep=3 --tries=1 --max-time=3600

Set QUEUE_CONNECTION=redis (or database after php artisan queue:table && php artisan migrate) in .env. Verify on Platform → System health: the scheduler heartbeat should be fresh. Full details: Queue, cron & scheduler.

4. Build the App

The Flutter app reads its server address at build time. Use the same https:// domain you just installed (no trailing slash and without /api/v1).

cd Main_Files/AppSourceCode
flutter pub get
flutter run --dart-define=API_BASE=https://your-domain.com

# release
flutter build appbundle --release --dart-define=API_BASE=https://your-domain.com   # Android (Play Store)
flutter build ipa --release --dart-define=API_BASE=https://your-domain.com         # iOS (macOS + Xcode)

Before store release: choose your own app name, icon, Android applicationId and iOS bundle id, add Firebase for push, and sign the build. All of that is in Mobile App. The app needs the Mobile / Public API v1 module enabled (default on) and at least one published article to show content.

5. Go-Live Checklist

Only the required items in Minimum Setup to Go Live must be done before launch; the list below is the complete production checklist, including optional features.

• APP_ENV=production, APP_DEBUG=false, APP_URL is the real https:// origin (the installer sets these)
• HTTPS certificate installed; SESSION_SECURE_COOKIE=true; domain points at public/; .env is not web-accessible
• Any sample staff accounts from a command-line db:seed ([email protected], [email protected], [email protected], password 12345678) deleted or changed; installer Super Admin has a strong password and 2FA
• PANEL_REGISTRATION=false (the default) unless you really want staff self sign-up at /register; APP_DEMO=false
• Time zone (Settings → Public site or SITE_TIMEZONE) and base currency (Finance → Currencies or APP_CURRENCY) set for your market
• php artisan storage:link done and public/storage points inside this project
• SMTP configured and a test e-mail received (Tools → Diagnostics)
• Cron entry running and a queue worker under Supervisor; System health is green; php artisan queue:restart in your deploy script
• CACHE_STORE=redis (optional but recommended), php artisan optimize (caches config, events, routes and views)
• Media on local disk backed up, or S3/R2/B2 configured and tested in Integrations
• Payment gateways tested in sandbox, webhook URLs registered (/membership/webhook/{gateway}), then sandbox switched off
• VAPID keys (web push) and Firebase service account (app push) added and a test push sent
• Search indexing enabled (APP_ENV=production or SEO_INDEXABLE=true); sitemap /sitemap.xml and /sitemap-news.xml submitted in Search Console
• CDN in front (optional): add the bypass paths from Common Setup → CDN (plain paths, ready to paste)
• Nightly database dump and a copy of storage/app/public and .env
• Mobile app built with your API_BASE, own name/icon/bundle id, release signing, privacy policy URL; your own Firebase project for push (Google Firebase dependency)

Where Next