Laravel 4 removing public from URL

Easiest way is create .htaccess file in your Laravel root with following content:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ public/$1 [L]
</IfModule>

It should be redirected easily.

Reference: https://coderwall.com/p/erbaig/laravel-s-htaccess-to-remove-public-from-url

Here's how I did it.

1. Edit your Windows Host file - C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
2. Edit the Apache vhosts file - Drive-Letter:\xampp\apache\conf\extra\httpd-vhosts.conf
3. Add an htaccess file to the laravel/public folder (if its not already there)
4. Restart Xampp apache server

Windows can be a real PITA when trying to edit the Hosts file because of the User Account Control. Since I work on all kinds of small hobby projects, I have to edit this file all the time so this is what I do.

• Install PSPad. It loads really fast and you can bookmark files for easy loading/editing. Sublime Text also works well if you load the two files I mentioned above and save the workspace as a new project.
• Right-click on the PSPad (or other editor) program shortcut and choose 'Run as Administrator'. You cannot save changes to the Hosts file unless you do this.
• Open the Windows Host file in the editor. This file does not have a file extension, so you have to choose "All Files" in the File Open dialog to even see the file.

• At the bottom of the file, add this:

  127.0.0.1  laravel.dev
  

  This tells Windows to point the web browser to localhost whenever you enter laravel.dev in the browser's address bar.

• Save the file.
• Open the xampp Apache httpd-vhosts.conf file.

• At the bottom of the file, add this: (I am assuming xampp is installed at the root of the D: drive)

  <VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName laravel.dev
    DocumentRoot "D:/xampp/htdocs/laravel/public"
    <Directory "D:/xampp/htdocs/laravel/public">
    </Directory>
  </VirtualHost>
  

• Add an htaccess file to your laravel/public folder (if its not already there). I think the default htaccess file that comes with L4 looks like this:

  Options -MultiViews
  RewriteEngine On
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
  RewriteRule ^ index.php [L]
  

• Restart your xampp apache server.
• Open a web browser and type in the address bar - http://laravel.dev
• That will take you to the index.php file in the "public" folder.
• To get to the About page, I think the address would be http://laravel.dev/about

Move the contents of the /public folder down a level.

You'll need to update the include lines in index.php to point to the correct location. (if it's down a level, remove the '../').

BEST Approch: I will not recommend removing public, instead on local computer create a virtual host point to public directory and on remote hosting change public to public_html and point your domain to this directory. Reason, your whole laravel code will be secure because its one level down to your public directory :)

METHOD 1: I just rename server.php to index.php and it works

METHOD 2:

Here is my Directory Structure,

/laravel/
... app
... bootstrap
... public
... etc

Follow these easy steps

1. move all files from public directory to root /laravel/
2. now, no need of public directory, so optionally you can remove it now
3. now open index.php and make following replacements

require DIR.'/../bootstrap/autoload.php';

to

require DIR.'/bootstrap/autoload.php';

and

$app = require_once DIR.'/../bootstrap/start.php';

to

$app = require_once DIR.'/bootstrap/start.php';

4. now open bootstrap/paths.php and change public directory path:

'public' => DIR.'/../public',

to

'public' => DIR.'/..',

and that's it, now try http:// localhost/laravel/