[php] Laravel 5 – Remove Public from URL

I know this is a very popular question but I haven't been able to find a working solution for Laravel 5. I've been trying to migrate from Codeigniter for a long time, but this convoluted installation process keeps putting me off.

I don't want to run a VM, this just seems awkward when switching between projects.

I don't want to set my document root to the public folder, this is also awkward when switching between projects.

I've tried the .htaccess mod_rewrite method

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

This just gives me a Laravel NotFoundHttpException in compiled.php line 7610.

When I tried L4 a while ago, I used the method of moving the contents of the public folder into the root. The structure of L5 is quite different and following the same steps completely broke Laravel (the server would only return a blank page).

Is there a decent method of removing 'public' in a development environment that:

1. Works with L5
2. Allows me to switch between projects with ease (I'm usually working on 2 or 3 at any one time).

Thanks

** I'm using MAMP and PHP 5.6.2

Here is the Best and shortest solution that works for me as of may, 2018 for Laravel 5.5

1. just cut your .htaccess file from the /public directory to the root directory and replace it content with the following code:

   <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
       <IfModule mod_negotiation.c>
          Options -MultiViews
       </IfModule>
   
       RewriteEngine On
   
       RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
       RewriteRule ^(.*)/$ /$1 [L,R=301]
   
       RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(\.css|\.js|\.png|\.jpg|\.gif|robots\.txt)$ [NC]
       RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
       RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
       RewriteRule ^ server.php [L]
   
       RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
       RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
       RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/public/
       RewriteRule ^(css|js|images)/(.*)$ public/$1/$2 [L,NC]
   </IfModule>
   

2. Just save the .htaccess file and that is all.

3. Rename your server.php file to index.php. that is all enjoy!

In Laravel 5.5 create .htacess file in your root directory and placed the following code:- Reference Link

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    <IfModule mod_negotiation.c>
        Options -MultiViews
    </IfModule>

    RewriteEngine On

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d [OR]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f
    RewriteRule ^ ^$1 [N]

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (\.\w+$) [NC]
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ public/$1 

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteRule ^ server.php

</IfModule>

There is always a reason to have a public folder in the Laravel setup, all public related stuffs should be present inside the public folder,

Don't Point your ip address/domain to the Laravel's root folder but point it to the public folder. It is unsafe pointing the server Ip to the root folder., because unless you write restrictions in .htaccess, one can easily access the other files.,

Just write rewrite condition in the .htaccess file and install rewrite module and enable the rewrite module, the problem which adds public in the route will get solved.

Easy way to remove public from laravel 5 url. You just need to cut index.php and .htaccess from public directory and paste it in the root directory,thats all and replace two lines in index.php as

require __DIR__.'/bootstrap/autoload.php';
$app = require_once __DIR__.'/bootstrap/app.php';

Note: The above method is just for the beginners as they might be facing problem in setting up virtual host and The best solution is to setup virtual host on local machine and point it to the public directory of the project.

I would like to add to @Humble Learner and note that the proper location to "fix" the url path for assets is /Illuminate/Routing/UrlGenerator.php/asset().

Update the method to match:

public function asset($path, $secure = null)
{
    if ($this->isValidUrl($path)) return $path;
    $root = $this->getRootUrl($this->getScheme($secure));
    return $this->removeIndex($root).'/public/'.trim($path, '/');
}

This will fix scripts, styles and image paths. Anything for asset paths.

BEST Approach: 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:

This work well for all laravel version...

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/

4 best ways to remove public from the URL.

If you used any other trick to remove the public from the URL like changes the name of server.php to index.php and changing into the core file path. Clearly, don't do that. Then why Laravel not giving the solution like this because it's not a proper way to do that.

1) Remove public from URL using htaccess in Laravel

By adding a .htaccess file into the root, You can access the website without public

<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c>
    <ifmodule mod_negotiation.c>
        Options -MultiViews
    </ifmodule>

    RewriteEngine On

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d [OR]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f
    RewriteRule ^ ^$1 [N]

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (\.\w+$) [NC]
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ public/$1 

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteRule ^ server.php

</ifmodule>

2) Remove the public by creating a virtual host in your local

I am giving demo here for the Window operating system. But I will try to define a step so that anyone can easily follow the step. You can also research on google for the same for the particular operating system.

Step 1: Go to C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\ open the "hosts" file in Administrator mode.

Step 2: Add the following code to it. Here, I am giving you a demo of projectname.local domain name demo, you can specify any as you like. Just make it constant at every place.

127.0.0.1  projectname.local

Step 3: Now go to, C:\xampp\apache\conf\extra for xampp users and for the wamp user "C:\wamp\bin\apache\Apache2.4.4\conf\extra" and open "httpd-vhosts.conf" file. Now add the following code into it.

Notes: Change the Document root as per your project also add domain name as you define into the "hosts" file.

<VirtualHost projectname.local>
      ServerAdmin projectname.local
      DocumentRoot "C:/xampp/htdocs/projectdir"
      ServerName projectname.local
      ErrorLog "logs/projectname.local.log"
      CustomLog "logs/projectname.local.log" common
 </VirtualHost>

Step 4: Last but the important step is to restart your Xampp or Wamp and access the url like http://projectname.local and your Laravel will respond without public URL.

3) Remove the public by running the command in Laravel

If you are working in local then you don't need to do anything just need to run the following command from your terminal or command line tool. After that, you can access your website by provided URL by the command line.

   > php artisan serve

If you are willing to run your project on particular IP then you need to run following command. If you are working on LAN then if you want to allow other people to access your website from local then you just need to check your IP address using command line by running "ipconfig" after getting your IP address run following the command.

> php artisan serve --host=192.168.0.177

If you are willing to run your project on a particular IP with particular port then you need to the following command.

> php artisan serve --host=192.168.0.177 --port=77

4) Remove the public on the hosted server or on the cpanel

After completion of the project you need to host the project on the server, then you just need to set the document root on your domain to the public folder. Check the below screenshot.

As per screenshot if you don't have any project folder into the public_html then you just need to set your document root like "public_html/public".

Reference taken from here

Please add these line into your root .htaccess file, which hides the /public and redirects to all the URLs without public

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !public/
RewriteRule (.*) /public/$1 [L]

I have read some article before and it's working fine but really don't know is safe or not

    a. Create new folder local.
    b. Move all project into the local folder expect public folder.
    c. Move all the content of public folder to project root.
    d. Delete the blank public folder
    f. Edit the index file. 

Edit the index.php

require __DIR__.'/../bootstrap/autoload.php';
$app = require_once __DIR__.'/../bootstrap/app.php';

to

require __DIR__.'/local/bootstrap/autoload.php';
$app = require_once __DIR__.'/local/bootstrap/app.php';

You can remove public keyword from url using various methods.

1) If you are using dedicated hosting and you have root access then You can remove public keyword from url using Virtual Host. You should give DocumentRoot path with public. So this will start index from public directory and remove it from url.

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin [email protected]
    ServerName example.com
    ServerAlias www.example.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/{yoursourcedirectory}/public

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

2) If you dont have root access of your hosting then you should genarate a new .htaccess file in your root directory and put the code as below

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
<IfModule mod_negotiation.c>
    Options -MultiViews
</IfModule>

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f
RewriteRule ^ ^$1 [N]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (\.\w+$) [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ public/$1 

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^ server.php
</IfModule>

You can get more reference here.

Problem is if you type /public and it will still be available in the url, therefor i created a fix which should be placed in the public/index.php

  $uri = urldecode(
     parse_url($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], PHP_URL_PATH)
  );

  if(stristr($uri, '/public/') == TRUE) {

    if(file_exists(__DIR__.'/public'.$uri)){

    }else{

      $actual_link = (isset($_SERVER['HTTPS']) && $_SERVER['HTTPS'] === 'on' ? "https" : "http") . "://{$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']}{$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']}";
      $actual_link = str_replace('public/', '',$actual_link);
      header("HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found");
      header("Location: ".$actual_link."");
      exit();
      return false;
   }}

this peace of code will remove public from the url and will give a 404 and then redirects to the url without the public

i have try some solution here and found htaccess that work for laravel 5.2, like this :

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)/$ /$1 [L,R=301]



RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(\.css|\.js|\.png|\.jpg|\.gif|robots\.txt)$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^ server.php

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/public/
RewriteRule ^(css|js|images)/(.*)$ public/$1/$2 [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^.env - [F,L,NC]
RewriteRule ^app - [F,L,NC]
RewriteRule ^bootstrap - [F,L,NC]
RewriteRule ^config - [F,L,NC]
RewriteRule ^database - [F,L,NC]
RewriteRule ^resources - [F,L,NC]
RewriteRule ^vendor - [F,L,NC]

when you have another file or folder to forbidden just add

RewriteRule ^your_file - [F,L,NC]

1) I haven't found a working method for moving the public directory in L5. While you can modify some things in the bootstrap index.php, it appears several helper functions are based on the assumption of that public directory being there. In all honestly you really shouldn't be moving the public directory.

2) If your using MAMP then you should be creating new vhosts for each project, each serving that projects public directory. Once created you access each project by your defined server name like this :

http://project1.dev
http://project2.dev

Create .htaccess file in root directory and place code something like below.

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    <IfModule mod_negotiation.c>
        Options -MultiViews
    </IfModule>

    RewriteEngine On

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d [OR]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f
    RewriteRule ^ ^$1 [N]

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (\.\w+$) [NC]
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ public/$1 

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteRule ^ server.php
</IfModule>

Even if i do not recommend putting Laravel on the root folder there are some cases when it could not be avoided; for those cases the above methods do not work for assets so i made a quick fix changing the htaccess: after copying server.php to index.php edit the .htaccess file like so:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    <IfModule mod_negotiation.c>
        Options -MultiViews
    </IfModule>

    RewriteEngine On

    ### fix file rewrites on root path ###
    #select file url
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*)$
    #if file exists in /public/<filename>
    RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/public/$1 -f
    #redirect to /public/<filename>
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ public/$1 [L]
    ###############

    # Redirect Trailing Slashes If Not A Folder...
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteRule ^(.*)/$ /$1 [L,R=301]

    # Handle Front Controller...

    #RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d # comment this rules or the user will read non-public file and folders!
    #RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f #
    RewriteRule ^ index.php [L]
</IfModule>

This was a quick fix i had to make so anyone is welcome to upgrade it.

I found the most working solution to this problem.

Just edit your .htaccess in the root folder and write the following code. Nothing else required

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^public
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ public/$1 [L]

<IfModule php7_module>
   php_flag display_errors Off
   php_value max_execution_time 30
   php_value max_input_time 60
   php_value max_input_vars 1000
   php_value memory_limit -1
   php_value post_max_size 8M
   php_value session.gc_maxlifetime 1440
   php_value session.save_path "/var/cpanel/php/sessions/ea-php71"
   php_value upload_max_filesize 2M
   php_flag zlib.output_compression Off
</IfModule>

DON'T!

YOU REALLY SHOULD NOT rename server.php in your Laravel root folder to index.php and copy the .htaccess file from the /public directory to your Laravel root folder!!!

This way everyone can access some of your files (.env for example). Try it yourself. You don't want that!

DO

Instead, you should create an .htaccess file in your root like this:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/public/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /public/$1 [L,QSA]

This will silently rewrite all your base URIs to the /public folder. Even all Headers, for example the HTTP Authorization Header, and all optional URI parameters will silently be passed on to the /public folder as well.

That's all

Please note when setting up a Laravel project with Docker: you won't need to do any of this.

For XAMPP user to remove public from url without touching laravel default filesystem is to set a Virtual Host for your application to do this jsut follow these steps

1. Open the XAMPP control panel application and stop Apache. Be aware that late Windows machines might run it as a service, so check the box to the left of the Apache module.

2. Navigate to C:/xampp/apache/conf/extra or wherever your XAMPP files are located.

3. Open the file named httpd-vhosts.conf with a text editor.

4. Around line 19 find # NameVirtualHost *:80 and uncomment or remove the hash.

5. At the very bottom of the file paste the following code:

<VirtualHost *>
    ServerAdmin [email protected]
    DocumentRoot "C:/xampp/htdocs" # change this line with your htdocs folder
    ServerName localhost
    ServerAlias localhost
    <Directory "C:/xampp/htdocs">
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes ExecCGI
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

6. Now you can copy and paste the code above below to add your Virtual Host directories. For example I’m working on a site called Eatery Engine so the following snippet will allow me to work with sub-domains on my local install:

<VirtualHost eateryengine.dev>
    ServerAdmin [email protected]
    DocumentRoot "C:/xampp/htdocs/eateryengine" # change this line with your htdocs folder
    ServerName eateryengine.dev
    ServerAlias eateryengine.dev
    <Directory "C:/xampp/htdocs/eateryengine">
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

7. Next head over to your Windows host file to edit your HOSTS. the file will be located at C:/Windows/System32/drivers/etc/hosts, where hosts is the file. Open it with notepad.
8. Look for #localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.

127.0.0.1 localhost

localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.

127.0.0.1       localhost
127.0.0.1       eateryengine.dev #change to match your Virtual Host.
127.0.0.1       demo.eateryengine.dev #manually add new sub-domains.

9. Restart Apache and test everything.

The original article can be found here

add .htaccess file to you root folder and paste the following code and replace yourdomainname with your own domain name

RewriteEngine on RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www.)?yourdomainname$ RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/public/

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /public/$1

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www.)?yourdomainname$ RewriteRule ^(/)?$ /public/index.php [L]

You don't need to do much, just create a .htaccess file on the root directory and paste/save the below;

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

I know that are are a lot of solution for this issue. The best and the easiest solution is to add .htaccess file in the root directory.

I tried the answers that we provided for this issue however I faced some issues with auth:api guard in Laravel.

Here's the updated solution:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    <IfModule mod_negotiation.c>
        Options -MultiViews
    </IfModule>

    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{HTTP:Authorization} ^(.*)
    RewriteRule .* - [e=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%1]

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d [OR]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f
    RewriteRule ^ ^$1 [N]

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (\.\w+$) [NC]
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ public/$1

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteRule ^ server.php
</IfModule>

Create the .htaccess file in your root directory and add this code. And everything goes right

@rimon.ekjon said:

Rename the server.php in the your Laravel root folder to index.php and copy the .htaccess file from /public directory to your Laravel root folder. -- Thats it !! :)

That's working for me. But all resource files in /public directory couldn't find and request urls didn't work, because I used asset() helper.

I changed /Illuminate/Foundation/helpers.php/asset() function as follows:

function asset($path, $secure = null)
{
    return app('url')->asset("public/".$path, $secure);
}

Now everything works :)

Thank you @rimon.ekjon and all of you.

2020 Author's Update

This answer is not recommended. Instead, handling .htaccess file is recommended.

Create A .htaccess file in your root DIR and paste the below code. That's it :P

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f
RewriteRule ^ ^$1 [N]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (\.\w+$) [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ public/$1 

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^ server.php

https://github.com/dipeshsukhia/laravel-remove-public-url

you can use this package

composer require dipeshsukhia/laravel-remove-public-url --dev

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=LaravelRemovePublicUrl

Let's say you placed all the other files and directories in a folder named 'locale'.

Just go to index.php and find these two lines:

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

$app = require_once __DIR__.'/../bootstrap/app.php';

and change them to this:

require __DIR__.'/locale/bootstrap/autoload.php';

$app = require_once __DIR__.'/locale/bootstrap/app.php';

Laravel 5.5

After having installed Laravel for the first time, I faced the renowned "public folder problem" and I came up with this solution that, in my personal opinion, is "cleaner" then the others I found on the Web.

Achievements

• Don't have public word in the URI
• Protect the .env file against curious people

Everything can be done just editing the .htaccess using mod_rewrite and four simple rules.

Steps

1. Move the .htaccess file in public/.htaccess in the main root
2. Edit it as below

I commented everything, so it should be clear (I hope) also to those who have never used mod_rewrite (not that I'm an expert, all the opposite). Also, to understand the rules, it must be clear that, in Laravel, if Bill connects to https://example.com, https://example.com/index.php is loaded. This file just contains the command header("refresh: 5; https://example.com/public/"), which sends the request to https://example.com/public/index.php. This second index.php is responsible to load the controller and other stuff.

# IfModule prevents the server error if the app is moved in an environment which doesn’t support mod_rewrite
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    <IfModule mod_negotiation.c>
        Options -MultiViews
    </IfModule>

    RewriteEngine On

    # RULES ORIGINALLY IN public/.htaccess ---
    # Redirect Trailing Slashes If Not A Folder...
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (.+)/$
    RewriteRule ^ %1 [L,R=301]

    # Handle Front Controller...
#    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
#    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
#    RewriteRule ^ index.php [L]

    # Handle Authorization Header
    RewriteCond %{HTTP:Authorization} .
    RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]
    # --- END

    # PERSONAL RULES ---
    # All the requests on port 80 are redirected on HTTPS
    RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} ^80$
    RewriteRule .* https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [R,L]

    # When .env file is requested, server redirects to 404
    RewriteRule ^\.env$ - [R=404,L,NC]

    # If the REQUEST_URI is empty (means: http://example.com), it loads /public/index.php
    # N.B.: REQUEST_URI is *never* actually empty, it contains a slash that must be set as match as below
    # .* means: anything can go here at least 0 times (= accepts any sequence of characters, including an empty string)
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/$
    RewriteRule ^(.*) /public/index.php [L]

    # If the current request is asking for a REQUEST_FILENAME that:
    # a) !== existent directory
    # b) !== existent file
    # => if URI !== css||js||images/whatever => server loads /public/index.php, which is responsible to load the app and the related controller
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteRule !^(css|js|images|media)/(.*)$ /public/index.php [L,NC]

    # If the current request is asking for a REQUEST_FILENAME that:
    # a) !== existent directory
    # b) !== existent file
    # => if URI == css||js||images[=$1]/whatever[=$2] => server loads the resource at public/$1/$2
    # If R flag is added, the server not only loads the resource at public/$1/$2 but redirects to it
    # e.g.: bamboo.jpg resides in example.com/public/media/bamboo.jpg
    #       Client asks for example.com/media/bamboo.jpg
    #       Without R flag: the URI remains example.com/media/bamboo.jpg and loads the image
    #       With R flag: the server redirects the client to example.com/public/media/bamboo.jpg and loads the image
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteRule ^(css|js|images|media)/(.*)$ /public/$1/$2 [L,NC]
    # --- END

</IfModule>

The following rule (originally in public/.htaccess) can be deleted. The same rule, in fact, is explicited in a more detailed way in the last two rules.

# Handle Front Controller...
#    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
#    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
#    RewriteRule ^ index.php [L]

EDIT: I missed Abhinav Saraswat's solution and his answer should be the accepted one. Just one, simple and clear rule that redirects all the traffic to the public folder without modifying any file.

Another method that I use is to create a symbolic link (in Linux, don't know about Win) using the ln command in htdocs or www i.e. ln projectname/public project The site is thus accessible via localhost/project

Create new file called .htaccess in root project folder and place the below code inside it :

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
 #Session timeout

<IfModule mod_negotiation.c>
    Options -MultiViews
</IfModule>

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f
RewriteRule ^ ^$1 [N]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (\.\w+$) [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ public/$1

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^ server.php

</IfModule>

Note: If you changed server.php to index.php you also should rename it in above code

I have solved the issue using 2 answers:

1. Renaming the server.php to index.php (no modifications)
2. Copy the .htaccess from public folder to root folder (like rimon.ekjon said below)

3. Changing .htaccess it a bit as follows for statics:

   RewriteEngine On
   
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
   RewriteRule ^(.*)/$ /$1 [L,R=301]
   
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(\.css|\.js|\.png|\.jpg|\.gif|robots\.txt)$ [NC]
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
   RewriteRule ^ index.php [L]
   
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/public/
   RewriteRule ^(css|js|images)/(.*)$ public/$1/$2 [L,NC]
   

   If there are any other static files needed just add the extension to the previous declared list

Just create .htaccess file at root and add these lines to it

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On

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

That's it!

The above code works on the root public_html folder. Having said that your core laravel file should be inside the public_html folder, if your directory looks like public_html/laravelapp/public and if you put the above code inside laravelapp it won't work. Therefore you must copy all your core files into public_html and put the .htaccess file there .

If you want to keep the code in a subdirectory then you can create a subdomain then this code will work for that also.

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    <IfModule mod_negotiation.c>
        Options -MultiViews -Indexes
    </IfModule>

    RewriteEngine On

    # Handle Authorization Header
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ public/$1 [L]
    RewriteCond %{HTTP:Authorization} .
    RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]

    # Redirect Trailing Slashes If Not A Folder...
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (.+)/$
    RewriteRule ^ %1 [L,R=301]

    # Handle Front Controller...
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteRule ^ index.php [L]
</IfModule>

Activate the mod_rewrite module with

sudo a2enmod rewrite

and restart the apache

sudo service apache2 restart

To use mod_rewrite from within .htaccess files (which is a very common use case), edit the default VirtualHost with

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf

Below "DocumentRoot /var/www/html" add the following lines:

<Directory "/var/www/html">
AllowOverride All
</Directory>

Restart the server again:

sudo service apache2 restart

Create .htaccess file in root directory and place code something like below.

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
 #Session timeout

<IfModule mod_negotiation.c>
    Options -MultiViews
</IfModule>

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f
RewriteRule ^ ^$1 [N]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (\.\w+$) [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ public/$1

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^ server.php

</IfModule>

Create .htaccess file in /public directory and place code something like below.

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
  <IfModule mod_negotiation.c>
    Options -MultiViews -Indexes
  </IfModule>

RewriteEngine On

# Handle Authorization Header
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Authorization} .
RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]

# Redirect Trailing Slashes If Not A Folder...
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (.+)/$
RewriteRule ^ %1 [L,R=301]

# Handle Front Controller...
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^ index.php [L]
</IfModule>

You can simply do it in 2 easy steps

1. Rename your server.php file in root directory of your laravel project.

2. create a .htaccess file on root directory and paste the below code in it

Options -MultiViews -Indexes

RewriteEngine On
 

**#Handle Authorization Header**

RewriteCond %{HTTP:Authorization} .

RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]

 

**# Redirect Trailing Slashes If Not A Folder...**

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (.+)/$

RewriteRule ^ %1 [L,R=301]

#Handle Front Controller...

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(\.css|\.js|\.png|\.jpg|\.gif|robots\.txt)$ [NC]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

RewriteRule ^ index.php [L]


RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/public/

RewriteRule ^(css|js|images)/(.*)$ public/$1/$2 [L,NC]

It's possible to remove public url in laravel5. Follow these steps:

step 1.copy all file from public and paste on root directory

step 2.open index.php file replace with

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

to

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

and

$app = require_once __DIR__.'/../bootstrap/app.php';

to

$app = require_once __DIR__.'/bootstrap/app.php';

And remove all cache and cookies.

You can create the virtual host first, and then you can specify your path in DocumentRoot

Example: /var/www/html/YOUR_LARAVEL_DIRECTORY_PATH/public

Firstly you can use this steps

For Laravel 5:

1. Rename server.php in your Laravel root folder to index.php

2. Copy the .htaccess file from /public directory to your Laravel root folder.

source: https://stackoverflow.com/a/28735930

after you follow these steps then you need to change all css and script path, but this will be tiring.

Solution Proposal :simply you can make minor change the helpers::asset function.

For this:

3. open vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Foundation\helpers.php

4. goto line 130

5. write "public/".$path instead of $path,

   function asset($path, $secure = null){
      return app('url')->asset("public/".$path, $secure);
   }