Step 2: Creating Our First Projects

Now that we’ve installed VS Code, Laragon, Composer, Node.js, and Git, we’re ready to create the backend (Laravel) and frontend (React) for our Gather app.

1. Create the Backend (Laravel)

Step 1: Open Laragon terminal

• Start Laragon.
• Click Menu → Laravel → Terminal.
• Navigate to your projects folder: cd C:/laragon/www

Step 2: Create Laravel project

composer create-project laravel/laravel gather-backend

This creates a folder gather-backend with a fresh Laravel install.

Step 3: Run Laravel

cd gather-backend
php artisan serve

Visit 👉 http://127.0.0.1:8000 → you should see the Laravel welcome page 🎉

2. Create the Frontend (React)

Step 1: Open a new terminal

Navigate to your projects folder (outside backend):

cd C:/laragon/www

Step 2: Create React project with Vite

npm create vite@latest gather-frontend -- --template react

Follow the prompts:

• Project name: gather-frontend
• Framework: React
• Variant: JavaScript

Step 3: Install dependencies

cd gather-frontend
npm install

Step 4: Run React

npm run dev

Visit 👉 http://localhost:5173 → you should see a Vite + React starter page 🎉