Migrating a PHP App to Laravel

Audit codebase and dependencies

List PHP version, libraries, custom frameworks, and deprecated code.

Export database schema and constraints

Dump schema, FK relations, and indexes for model mapping.

Create new Laravel project scaffold

Install required Composer packages

Add auth, queue, and DB drivers needed for your app.

Configure environment (.env) and app settings

Set DB, cache, queue, mail, and APP_KEY values.

Set up version control and branch strategy

Create a migration branch and define CI hooks and reviews.

Map legacy routes to Laravel routes

List endpoints, HTTP verbs, and middleware equivalents.

Create controllers and map actions

Group related endpoints into controllers and actions.

Extract business logic into service classes

Move domain logic out of controllers into reusable services.

Create Eloquent models and relationships

Define models, casts, fillable, relationships, and accessors.

Write database migrations and seeders

Translate schema to Laravel migrations and create seeders.

Run data migration scripts and verify integrity

Migrate production data and validate row counts and FK integrity.

Convert PHP views to Blade templates and update assets

Replace includes, echo syntax, and update asset paths.

Implement authentication and authorization with Laravel

Use Breeze/Jetstream or guards and map roles/permissions.

Migrate queues, jobs, and scheduled tasks

Map cron jobs to scheduler and legacy jobs to Laravel jobs/queues.

Port tests to Laravel's PHPUnit TestCase

Convert or rewrite unit and feature tests to Laravel format.

Configure CI/CD and deployment for Laravel

Update build, run migrations, and set env handling in deployment.

Run end-to-end QA, performance tests, and create rollback plan

Smoke test endpoints, load test, and document rollback steps.