Local machine setup

Run the whole platform on your own computer — to evaluate it, build a demo, or customise safely before going live.

Any local stack that gives you PHP 8.2+, MySQL/MariaDB and Apache works. The recipes below use the most common one per operating system; the installer is the same everywhere.

Windows — XAMPP

  1. Install XAMPP (PHP 8.2 build) and start Apache and MySQL from its control panel.
  2. Unzip your download, then extract quickmunch.zip into C:\xampp\htdocs\ — for example C:\xampp\htdocs\quickmunch\.
  3. Open phpMyAdmin (http://localhost/phpmyadmin) and create an empty database.
  4. Browse to http://localhost/quickmunch — you are redirected into the installer. Database host is 127.0.0.1, user root, empty password.
PHP extensions: XAMPP ships everything required; if the requirements screen flags intl, enable it in C:\xampp\php\php.ini by removing the leading ; from extension=intl and restarting Apache.

macOS — Herd, MAMP or Homebrew

  1. Install a stack: Laravel Herd (simplest), MAMP, or Homebrew's php + mysql + httpd.
  2. Place the application folder in the stack's web root (Herd: its parked folder; MAMP: htdocs).
  3. Create an empty database — MAMP ships phpMyAdmin; with Homebrew use mysql -u root and CREATE DATABASE quickmunch;.
  4. Open the site in your browser and follow the installer.

Linux — LAMP

  1. Install the stack, e.g. on Ubuntu: 
    sudo apt install apache2 mysql-server php8.2 php8.2-mysql php8.2-mbstring \
  php8.2-gd php8.2-curl php8.2-xml php8.2-zip php8.2-intl libapache2-mod-php8.2
sudo a2enmod rewrite && sudo systemctl restart apache2
  2. Copy the application folder to /var/www/html/quickmunch and make it writable by the web server: 
    sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/quickmunch
  3. Create the database: sudo mysql then CREATE DATABASE quickmunch; CREATE USER 'qm'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'choose-a-password'; GRANT ALL ON quickmunch.* TO 'qm'@'localhost';
  4. Make sure .htaccess overrides are allowed (AllowOverride All for the folder), then open the site and follow the installer.

Without Apache: Laravel's own server

For a quick evaluation you can skip Apache entirely. From the application folder:

php artisan serve

Then open http://127.0.0.1:8000 — clean addresses, no /public segment. If artisan is not available, PHP's built-in server does the same job: php -S localhost:8000 -t public. Either way you still need MySQL running, and both are for trying things out — not for anything public.

After it installs

Local sites skip HTTPS, so features that require a secure origin — online card fields, push notifications, the installable app — stay quiet until you are on a real domain. Everything else behaves exactly as production does. Continue with Your first hour.

Related System requirements · Installing QuickMunch · Server setup · Your first hour