PingPong Q&A

Wiki  •  LBAW

PingPong Q&A helps communities share and build knowledge in a simple, organized way. By making it easy to ask questions, find answers, and recognize contributions, it encourages people to engage and learn together. With smart search, badges, and an interface that works on any device, the platform makes knowledge easier to discover, trust, and keep for the long term.

Setting up

After installing every dependency, you should install all local dependencies required for development:

composer install
npm install

Next, configure your environment variables. Copy the example file and generate your unique application key:

cp .env.example .env
php artisan key:generate

Update the .env file with your local PostgreSQL database credentials (DB_USERNAME, DB_PASSWORD, DB_DATABASE). Once configured, you can initialize and seed the database:

# required at first run and after database script changes
php artisan db:seed

Running the project

For a simpler development experience, you should use the provided startup script. Make it executable and run it:

chmod +x dev.sh
./dev.sh

If you prefer to run the services manually, open two separate terminals:

npm run dev     # starts Vite in watch mode
php artisan serve   # starts Laravel

Testing

You can run the automated test suite using:

php artisan test

Common issues

If you are facing routing errors, outdated views, or configuration issues, clearing the application cache usually resolves them:

php artisan config:clear && php artisan route:clear && php artisan view:clear && php artisan cache:clear

Team

This project was developed for the LBAW 25/26 course at FEUP, with the help of Raul Oliveira, Alexandre Ferreira and Dinis Lima.