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How to connect Laravel to SQL Server locally

If you want to set Laravel DB to be SQL Server, you need to edit .env file and add sqlsrv as your DB connection

DB_CONNECTION=sqlsrv
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1  
DB_PORT=1433
DB_DATABASE=YOUR_DB_NAME
DB_USERNAMEYOUR_USERNAME
DB_PASSWORD=YOUR_PASSWORD

You need to save the .env file and clear the config cache

php artisan config:clear

Also you need to download Microsoft Driver for PHP for SQLServer from this url:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/connect/php/download-drivers-php-sql-server?view=sql-server-ver16

Extract the downloaded file and copy the files that match your PHP version into the ext folder of your php folder

After that, you need to edit the php.ini (in your PHP folder) to add the drivers you just downloaded

extension=php_sqlsrv_82_ts_x64.dll
extension=php_pdo_sqlsrv_82_ts_x64.dll

Note that you have to edit the names of the extensions to match the driver files you just downloaded which match with PHP version, in my case it was 8.2 version

After saving the php.ini you must restart the apache server for changes to take effect

Now if you want to test the DB connection , you can open a terminal and go to tinker

php artisan tinker

and then type

DB::connection()->getDatabaseName()

If you get the name of the DB, then the connection is good, but wait .. that doesn’t mean you are able to read or write from the DB. For example, if you tried to do a migrate and you get an error like this:

SQLSTATE[08001]: [Microsoft][ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server]TCP Provider: The wait operation timed out.

 (Connection: sqlsrv, SQL: select * from sys.sysobjects where id = object_id(migrations) and xtype in (‘U’, ‘V’))

That means there is most probably a problem with the credentials or the port used

First, you need to make sure that the user has SQL Server authentication, not Windows authentication, you need to open SQL Server Management Studio and right on the Server from the left menu, click on Properties and then Security and choose SQL Server and Windows Authentication mode option

After clicking save, go to the left menu:  Security > Login and right click on the user name and click on Properties and make sure that the option of SQL Server Authentication is active

Better to restart the SQL Server by right click on the Server name from the left menu and click on Restart.

If you still get an error message, try to stop the SQL server Process from Task manager

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Getting data from API works in Postman but not working in localhost

If you are getting the data from an external API when using Postman, but when you try the code provided by Postman in your local host you get no data. A reason for that could be the SSL, first, try to install SSL for your local hosting server. Usually, OpenSSL will do the trick. Here is a link to a step-by-step of how to install SLL over WAMP.

https://infyom.com/blog/how-to-enable-localhost-https-ssl-on-wamp-server

If you still can’t connect to the external API, the reason could be an issue with the SSL certificate validation. (after all, this is a self-signed certification). This error usually occurs when the certificate authority (CA) that issued the SSL certificate used by the server you’re trying to connect to is not recognized or trusted by your system.

If you are using cURL, to resolve this issue, you have a few options:

1- Update your CA certificates: Your system’s CA certificate bundle might be outdated. You can try updating it to include the latest CA certificates. The location of the CA certificate bundle can vary depending on your operating system and cURL installation. In some cases, it may be located at /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt.

2-Specify the CA certificate bundle path explicitly: If you have access to the CA certificate bundle, you can specify its path explicitly using the –cacert option with cURL. For example:

curl --cacert /path/to/ca-certificates.crt https://example.com

3- Ignore certificate validation (not recommended): If you’re in a development or testing environment and certificate validation is not crucial, you can bypass the certificate validation check using the -k or –insecure option with cURL. However, this approach is not recommended in production environments because it exposes you to potential security risks. Example:

curl -k https://example.com

If you are using PHP, here is an example

<?php

// Create a cURL handle
$ch = curl_init();

// Set the URL
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "https://example.com");

// Disable SSL certificate verification
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, false);

// Execute the request
$response = curl_exec($ch);

// Check for errors
if ($response === false) {
    $error = curl_error($ch);
    echo "cURL error: " . $error;
}

// Close the cURL handle
curl_close($ch);
?>
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How to check for all software updates in your windows system

Using winget from your windows terminal you can check and even do upgrades to all your applications, not only Microsoft related applications.

Windows Package Manager winget command-line tool is available on Windows 11 and modern versions of Windows 10 as a part of the App Installer.

CommandDescription
infoDisplays metadata about the system (version numbers, architecture, log location, etc). Helpful for troubleshooting.
installInstalls the specified application.
showDisplays details for the specified application.
sourceAdds, removes, and updates the Windows Package Manager repositories accessed by the winget tool.
searchSearches for an application.
listDisplay installed packages.
upgradeUpgrades the given package.
uninstallUninstalls the given package.
hashGenerates the SHA256 hash for the installer.
validateValidates a manifest file for submission to the Windows Package Manager repository.
settingsOpen settings.
featuresShows the status of experimental features.
exportExports a list of the installed packages.
importInstalls all the packages in a file.

“winget” is a command-line package manager for Windows 10 and Windows 11 operating systems. It allows users to search, install, update, and uninstall software packages from the command line or PowerShell. Winget provides a streamlined way to manage software installations and updates without requiring a separate graphical user interface.

The primary user of “winget” is developers, system administrators, and power users who prefer command-line interfaces for managing software. Here are some use cases for “winget”:

  • Software Installation
  • Automated Scripts and Deployment
  • Package Management
  • Integration with Development Workflows

For more information, you can go to this url:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/winget/

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Facing a hard time installing Gulp?

If you are trying to install Gulp and you always get errors related to node-sass, here is a small tip that could fix it for you

Simply uninstall node-sass and install dart-sass

npm uninstall gulp-sass
npm install gulp-dart-sass

Then, update your Gulpfile.js to use gulp-dart-sass instead of gulp-sass for compiling Sass.

By following these steps, you should be able to resolve the compatibility issue with Node Sass and successfully run gulp watch without encountering the “Node Sass does not yet support your current environment” error.

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How to abort with custom message in Laravel

If you want to abort with a custom message, you will find that in some code like this, 

abort(400, 'custom error message');

the above code will show you the standard 400 error without any custom messages. You need to write the code like this

abort(
    response()->json(['message' => "My Custom error message"], 400)
  );
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How to solve “Attempt to read property of Null”

Sometimes in Laravel, when you try to show a property of an object, for example :

{{ $user->name }}

you get an error like this :

Attempt to read property on null

which simply means that the object itself “user” is null and you can’t get a name property of Null. To solve this, you need to make sure that the user object is there first and then get the name but that will be a lot of coding and if statement, while there is a one-character solution to this, it is called a Nullsafe Operator and it is in PHP 8
the code will look like this

{{ $user?->name }}

you can use the same method in a chain of objects or even methods

$country = $session?->user?->getAddress()?->country;

There are other options that you can check in this article

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Nothing to migrate in Laravel

If you are trying to migrate a single class you will do something like this

php artisan migrate --path = path_to_migration_file

if you get something like :

Nothing to migrate

and you are sure the file is there, then you can try to write the command like this

php artisan migrate --path="database/migrations/2022_11_04_1235_create_table.php"
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Log Laravel

You can easily log your data in Larave, all you have to do is to use Log, and then log whatever you want, here is an example

<?php
 
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
 
use Log;
use App\User;
use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;
 
class UserController extends Controller
{
    /**
     * Show the profile for the given user.
     *
     * @param  int  $id
     * @return Response
     */
    public function showProfile($id)
    {
        Log::info('User ID: '.$id);
 
        return view('user.profile', ['user' => User::findOrFail($id)]);
    }
}

You can also use an array of contextual data 

Log::info('User failed to login.', ['id' => $user->id]);

Laravel provides 8 levels of logging

Log::emergency($error);
Log::alert($error);
Log::critical($error);
Log::error($error);
Log::warning($error);
Log::notice($error);
Log::info($error);
Log::debug($error);

You can view the log file at: storage/laravel.log but you may find a huge file with thousands of line as this is the main file where all the logs are saved.

If you want to create your own log file, you will need to add a new channel in the config/logging.php

'channels' => [
        'myLog' => [
                    'driver' => 'single',
                    'path' => storage_path('logs/myLog.log'),
                    'level' => 'info',
                ],

where myLog.log is the file name you want to save your logs in

To write to your custom log file, you have to specify the channel you just created

Log::channel('myLog')->info('This is testing for my log file.');

ps. Don’t forget to empty the config cache for the updates to be active

from your terminal, you write: php artisan cache:clear

Finally, when you open myLog.log file, you will see something like this:

[2022-08-25 09:13:20] local.INFO: This is testing for my log file.

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API request not working locally but works fine on the server

If you are trying to get some data from an external API and it is working on the Postman or on the live server but is not working locally, and you may also face an error like:

SSL certificate problem: unable to get local issuer certificate

here is a quick solution for this issue:

Change it to:

curl.cainfo = “C:\wamp64\bin\php\php8.1.0\cacert.pem“

  • Make sure you remove the semicolon at the beginning of the line and double-check the path of the php folder
  • Save changes to php.ini,
  • Restart WampServer (or any other local server you have)
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How to use withSum() with where condition

You can use withSum in query with where condition, here is an example:

If you want to list all Projects with the sum of all invoices that were issued this year:

$projects = Project::select('id', 'name', 'created_at')
            ->withSum(
                 ['invoices as prev_invoices' => function($query) {
                     $query->whereYear('invoices.issue_date', date('Y'));
                }], 'amount' 
             )
            ->get();