I created the most awesome, the most unbelievable, the most dazzlingly shiny .htaccess of all time for Laravel.

Alright, I’ll stop exaggerating, let’s get a bit serious so I can explain what problems it solves.

Aesthetic Problem

The default Laravel installation forces you to enter the public/ directory to run the application without using the CLI.

For example, to see the homepage you have to go here:
https://www.acitd.com/public/

Instead of here:
https://www.acitd.com/

Security Problem

Another little issue is that if you upload your app “as-is”, anyone can download the files located in the project’s root directory, something you definitely don’t want for security reasons.

What applications usually do is serve the contents of the public/ director as if they were in the root of the project /, while all other files remain hidden.

Laravel also has another public directory: storage/app/public/.

In case you didn’t know, here are the differences:

Directory	Usage
public/	You put static public files here, i.e., ones you create during development.
storage/app/public/	Dynamic public files go here, i.e., ones created by the application (e.g., uploads).

The Ultimate .htaccess Solution

To solve all the above issues, I’ve created the ultimate super-duper .htaccess for Laravel.

Follow the steps below and you’ll be all set!

1. Place this .htaccess file in the project’s root directory /:

.htaccess

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/$
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/public%{REQUEST_URI} -d
RewriteRule ^ %{REQUEST_URI}/ [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/storage/app/public/
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/storage/app/public%{REQUEST_URI} -f
RewriteRule ^ /storage/app/public%{REQUEST_URI} [QSA,L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/(public|storage/app/public)/
RewriteRule ^ /public%{REQUEST_URI} [QSA,L]

2. Place this .htaccess file inside the storage/app/public/ directory:

storage/app/public/.htaccess

allow from all

That’s it!

Now the only public directoris are the ones below, and their files appear as if they’re located in the root /:

• public/
• storage/app/public/

Also, you got rid of that annoying public/ in the URL!


BTW: The files you want to protect shouldn’t be cached so that .htaccess can be applied.

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So that’s it… now go take a dip since summer’s here :D

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Written by: Human
Translated by: AI