Solving the Call to undefined function userName() Error in Laravel Forge Deployments

Learn how to fix the `Call to undefined function userName()` error in Laravel Forge after each deployment by updating your composer configuration.
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This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/74741852/ asked by the user 'Hardist' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/2257418/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/74789447/ provided by the user 'Rob' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/1038394/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

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Solving the Call to undefined function userName() Error in Laravel Forge Deployments

When deploying a Laravel application to production using Laravel Forge, you might encounter an error that can be frustrating: Call to undefined function userName(). If you’ve faced this issue after every deployment, this guide aims to analyze the problem and provide a straightforward solution.

The Problem

You might have a helper file, such as app/helpers.php, used to define useful functions for your application, like this simple userName() method:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

While everything seems to work flawlessly in your local environment, once you push your code to production, the function becomes undefined, resulting in errors each time. The problem is compounded by the need to run composer update on Laravel Forge post-deployment to resolve the issue.

Why Is This Happening?

The underlying issue arises from Laravel Forge’s deployment script. By default, Forge runs Composer with the --no-dev flag during deployments. This flag instructs Composer to skip certain autoload-related settings, particularly those defined in the autoload-dev section of composer.json. The mistake here is that your helper file, helpers.php, is defined in autoload-dev instead of autoload.

The Solution

To resolve this problem, you simply need to move your helper file reference from the autoload-dev section to the autoload section of your composer.json file. Here’s how you can do it:

Open your composer.json file: This file is usually found in the root directory of your Laravel application.

Locate the autoload-dev section: You will see something like this:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Move the helper reference: Transfer the helper file to the autoload section so it resembles the following:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Run Composer: After making this change, ensure you run composer dump-autoload locally to refresh your autoload files or simply deploy to Forge, and the changes will take effect.

Conclusion

By adhering to this simple yet crucial adjustment in your composer.json, you can avoid the Call to undefined function userName() error and streamline your deployment process through Laravel Forge without needing to execute composer update after each deploy.

Now, not only will your website run smoothly, but you'll also have a better understanding of Composer's autoloading mechanism in Laravel. Happy coding!

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