# Laravel: Connect to a Database in a GitHub Action

> Add a checkout, PHP install, and MySQL startup step to a GitHub Actions workflow, then run php artisan migrate before your Laravel unit tests execute

**URL:** https://sentry.io/answers/how-do-i-connect-to-a-database-using-laravel-in-a-github-action/

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## The Problem

You can automatically run your unit tests when committing your Laravel project to GitHub by using a GitHub Actions workflow. The workflow is configured in a `.yaml` file in your repository's `.github/workflows` folder.

Your unit tests will need a database to run against. How can I set this up in a GitHub workflow?

## The Solution

GitHub includes a MySQL and PostgreSQL database in their test runner. Let's look at how to use it.

To run a GitHub Action when you commit your code, create the file `.github/workflows/test.yaml`.

Insert the following content:

```yaml
name: Test Laravel
on:
    push:
        branches:
            - main
    workflow_dispatch:
```

The code above sets the name of the workflow that will display in the Actions tab of your GitHub repository, then sets two events on which the workflow will run:
- When pushing to the main branch.
- When manually triggered from the GitHub Actions web page.

Next, add the code below which specifies what will run when these events trigger:

```yaml
jobs:
    run-tests:
        runs-on: ubuntu-latest

        steps:
            - name: Checkout repository
              uses: actions/checkout@v4

            - name: Install PHP latest
              run: |
                  sudo apt remove php -y
                  sudo apt update
                  sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
                  sudo apt update
                  sudo apt -y install php
                  sudo apt update
                  sudo apt install php-curl php-xml php-mbstring php-mysql -y

            - name: Start MySQL
              run: |
                  sudo systemctl start mysql.service
                  mysql -uroot -proot -e 'CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS laravel;'

            - name: Install Composer dependencies
              run: composer update

            - name: Run unit tests
              run: |
                  php artisan migrate
                  php artisan test
```

The only job in this workflow is `run-tests` set to run on a Linux machine. There are five steps:
- Checkout your code on the GitHub runner (virtual machine).
- Install the latest version of PHP and common dependencies.
- Start MySQL.
- Install the Laravel dependency packages.
- Run your unit tests.

GitHub provides a test runner environment based on Ubuntu Linux with some extra features. For a full overview, see [this documentation](https://github.com/actions/runner-images/blob/main/images/ubuntu/Ubuntu2204-Readme.md).

Note that the MySQL username and password are `root`. Set these in your `.env` file to run the test in an experimental project, or use GitHub secrets when running in production (where you don't want to commit your `.env` file secrets to version control).

The Ubuntu 22.04 image uses PHP 8.1, so in this script, we install the latest available PHP version in the PPA `ppa:ondrej/php` manually (8.3 at the time of writing). You could also install PHP by searching for a PHP Action either [from GitHub](https://github.com/shivammathur/setup-php), or on the [Actions Marketplace](https://github.com/marketplace). In the configuration, you can also use an Action for a different database like PostgreSQL.

Save the `test.yaml` file, commit it, and push it to GitHub. On the Actions tab of your repository you can see your tests run.

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*Source: [sentry.io/answers/how-do-i-connect-to-a-database-using-laravel-in-a-github-action/](https://sentry.io/answers/how-do-i-connect-to-a-database-using-laravel-in-a-github-action/)*