VUMA AFRICA - CPANEL DEPLOYMENT

Contents: vumawebsite/ contains Laravel, production vendor dependencies, compiled
frontend assets and photos. Node.js and Composer are not needed for installation.
Requires PHP 8.2+ with Laravel extensions and MySQL.

1. Back up the live website and database before replacing files.
2. Extract this ZIP into your cPanel home directory (for example /home/ACCOUNT/).
   The application will be /home/ACCOUNT/vumawebsite/.
3. In cPanel Domains, set vumaafrica.co.tz's document root to:
   /home/ACCOUNT/vumawebsite/public
   If cPanel does not allow changing the primary domain root, ask your host to
   point it there. Do not expose the entire Laravel application as the web root.
   Use the included public/.htaccess; keep custom cPanel PHP settings if needed.
4. For an EXISTING site: retain its .env (including APP_KEY), database and
   storage/app uploads. Do not generate a replacement APP_KEY or reseed data.
   Set APP_ENV=production, APP_DEBUG=false,
   APP_URL=https://vumaafrica.co.tz and ASSET_URL=https://vumaafrica.co.tz.
   Ensure SESSION_PATH=/ and remove any old /vumawebsite asset prefix.
5. For a NEW installation: copy .env.example to .env, create a MySQL database
   and database user in cPanel, grant that user database access, and fill in
   DB_DATABASE, DB_USERNAME and DB_PASSWORD. From the application directory run:
     php artisan key:generate
   No local data, admin accounts or database export is included in this ZIP.
6. From the application directory in cPanel Terminal run:
     php artisan optimize:clear
     php artisan migrate --force
     php artisan storage:link
     php artisan config:cache
     php artisan view:cache
   Use the PHP 8.2+ CLI selected for your account. Back up the existing database
   before migrations. storage and bootstrap/cache must be writable by PHP.
7. Configure your real SMTP credentials for outgoing email. The new-install
   template logs mail until SMTP is configured. For realtime chat/admin events,
   configure a supported broadcasting service separately. Existing sites should
   preserve their working mail, queue and broadcast settings.
8. Hard-refresh your browser. Check:
   https://vumaafrica.co.tz/images/vuma-photos/Jasmine.png
   Check the home page, navigation, chat and contact form.

This package was built separately; the local XAMPP project was not converted to
production. The archive excludes .env, local databases, uploads, logs, sessions,
node_modules and old ZIP files. Frontend changes after this build require a new
npm build. Never upload your local .env over the live .env.