How to build laravel production?

@elise_daugherty 

Building a Laravel application for production typically involves several steps to optimize the application for performance and security. Here are the general steps to build a Laravel application for production:

1. Set up a proper environment: Ensure that you have an appropriate server environment for hosting your Laravel application. This may include setting up a web server (such as Apache or Nginx), a database server (such as MySQL or PostgreSQL), and any other necessary services.
2. Optimize configuration: Review and optimize your Laravel application's configuration settings for performance and security. This may include setting appropriate caching and session storage options, configuring database connections, and ensuring that debug mode is disabled in the production environment.
3. Enable caching: Utilize Laravel's caching mechanisms, such as Redis or Memcached, to improve the performance of your application by storing frequently accessed data in memory.
4. Use a production database: Ensure that your Laravel application is connected to a production-grade database server and that database queries are optimized for performance. Consider enabling query caching and indexing for frequently used database queries.
5. Secure your application: Implement security best practices in your Laravel application, such as enabling HTTPS, setting up firewalls, and using secure authentication mechanisms. Be sure to protect sensitive data and prevent common security vulnerabilities, such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting.
6. Optimize assets: Minify and concatenate assets, such as CSS and JavaScript files, to reduce load times and improve performance. Consider utilizing a task runner like Laravel Mix to automate this process.
7. Monitor and test: Once your Laravel application is built for production, continuously monitor performance metrics and security vulnerabilities. Conduct regular testing, such as load testing and security audits, to identify and address any issues that may arise.

By following these steps, you can build a Laravel application optimized for production, ensuring that your application is secure, scalable, and performs well under heavy traffic.