Installing Property Management Portal

This guide assumes no programming knowledge. It uses cPanel, which is what most web hosting comes with. If your hosting looks different, the steps are the same and the names of the buttons change.

You will need:

• Web hosting with PHP 8.2 or newer and MySQL
• The zip file you downloaded after buying
• Your licence key, which was emailed to you. It looks like DC-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXX

Set aside about twenty minutes. Nothing here can break your website: you are adding a new folder, not changing an existing one.

Step 1. Upload the files

1. Sign in to cPanel and open File Manager.
2. Go to the folder where your websites live. It is usually called public_html.
3. Create a new folder for this app. Name it property-management-portal.
4. Open that folder, click Upload, and upload the zip file.
5. When the upload finishes, go back to File Manager, right click the zip and choose Extract.
6. You should now see folders named app, public, resources and others, plus a file called artisan.

Step 2. Point your address at the public folder

This is the one step people skip, and skipping it puts your settings file on the internet. Do not skip it.

If the app is on its own domain or subdomain (for example app.yourbusiness.com):

1. In cPanel open Domains (or Subdomains).
2. Add the domain or subdomain.
3. Where it asks for the Document Root, type the path ending in /public, for example public_html/property-management-portal/public.
4. Save.

If you cannot change the document root, ask your host to do it. The message to send them is:

Please set the document root for <your address> to public_html/property-management-portal/public.

Step 3. Create the database

1. In cPanel open MySQL Databases.
2. Under Create New Database, type a name, for example property-management-portal. Click Create Database. cPanel will show you the full name, which usually starts with your account name, like myaccount_property-management-portal. Write it down exactly as shown.
3. Scroll to MySQL Users, create a new user, and let cPanel generate a strong password. Write the user name and password down.
4. Scroll to Add User To Database, pick the user and the database you just made, click Add, tick ALL PRIVILEGES, and save.

You now have three things written down: database name, user name, password.

Step 4. Fill in the settings file

1. In File Manager, open the app folder.

2. Find the file called .env.example. Right click it and choose Copy. Name the copy .env exactly, with the dot at the front and no .txt on the end. If you cannot see files starting with a dot, click Settings in the top right of File Manager and tick Show Hidden Files.

3. Right click .env and choose Edit.

4. Change these lines. Everything else can stay as it is.

   APP_URL=https://app.yourbusiness.com
   
   DB_DATABASE=the database name you wrote down
   DB_USERNAME=the user name you wrote down
   DB_PASSWORD=the password you wrote down
   
   LICENSE_KEY=DC-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXX
   

   APP_URL must be the address people will type, starting with https:// and with no slash at the end.

5. Save and close.

Step 5. Set it up

Everything in this step happens once. There are two ways to do it: pick whichever your hosting offers.

Option A: with Terminal (the quicker way)

If cPanel has a Terminal button:

cd public_html/property-management-portal
php artisan key:generate
php artisan migrate --force
php artisan storage:link

Then, only if you want the example records to look at:

php artisan db:seed --force

Option B: no Terminal

Ask your host to run the four commands above for you, in the app folder. Almost every host will do this on request. The message to send them is:

In public_html/property-management-portal, please run php artisan key:generate, php artisan migrate --force and php artisan storage:link.

Step 6. Sign in and change the password

1. Open your address in a browser. You should see the sign in page.
2. If you ran the demo data step, sign in with:
   • Email: owner@example.com
   • Password: password
3. Change that password immediately. Click your name in the top right, choose My details, and set a new one. Then change the email address to your own.
4. If you did not run the demo data step, you have no account yet. Ask your host, or use Terminal, to run:

   php artisan db:seed --class=DemoSeeder --force
   

   and then sign in as above.

Step 7. Activate your licence

The app checks its licence with Devcity. Until it is activated you will see a licence page instead of the app.

With Terminal, in the app folder:

php artisan license:activate DC-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXX

To check it at any time:

php artisan license:check

A few things worth knowing:

• Your licence is tied to the address in APP_URL. If you move the app to a different address, run php artisan license:deactivate on the old one first.
• The app keeps working for a short time if it cannot reach Devcity, so a network problem does not stop your business.
• Never send your licence key to anyone.

Step 8. Your business details

Sign in, then open Settings → Business details and fill in your business name, address, phone, email, logo, currency and tax rate. These appear on every screen and at the top of every document the app prints.

Then click Preview a document. If your logo and details look right, you are finished.

Optional: background work

Some things happen on a schedule, such as sending queued emails. If you want them, add one scheduled task.

1. In cPanel open Cron Jobs.

2. Set it to run once per minute.

3. Paste this, changing the path to your own:

   cd /home/YOURACCOUNT/public_html/property-management-portal && php artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1
   

The app works perfectly well without this.

If something goes wrong

A blank white page. Almost always the document root in Step 2. Check that the address points at the public folder.

"No application encryption key has been specified." Step 5 was not completed. Run php artisan key:generate.

A database error mentioning access denied. The three values in .env do not match Step 3. The database name usually starts with your cPanel account name, and it is easy to leave that off.

The logo shows as a broken image. php artisan storage:link has not been run. It is in Step 5.

"This installation does not have a valid licence." Step 7. Run php artisan license:check to see what it says.

The password reset email never arrives. Fill in the MAIL_ lines in .env with the mail settings your host gave you. Until then the app can send nothing.

Still stuck. Reply to the email that carried your licence key, and say which step number you are on and what the screen says. That is enough for us to answer in one reply.

Property Management Portal 1.0.0

Getting it set up for you, and getting help

If any of the steps above did not go the way this guide says, or you would rather somebody else did the whole installation, write to us. Installing it for you is a normal thing to ask for and it does not take long.

We also change these products to suit a business: new screens, your own forms and documents, a report you need, a different look, or a connection to something you already use. Tell us what the business actually needs and we will tell you honestly whether this product is the right starting point.

Devcity Registration SP14842022 Lot10128 Hulhumale Maldives

• Email: info@devcitymv.com
• Phone: 9905600
• Web: https://devcitymv.com

Please have your licence key and the address the product is installed at ready when you write. It saves a round trip.

Property Management Portal

Tenancies, rent due, rent collected, and a receipt for every payment

Version 1.0.0

Installing

Read INSTALL.md. It is written step by step for cPanel hosting and assumes no programming knowledge. You need PHP 8.2 or newer, MySQL, and the licence key that was emailed to you.

What is in the box

• Sign in, sign out, and password reset by email. There is no public sign up: you create an account for each member of your staff.
• Two roles. An owner can reach everything, including business settings and staff accounts. Staff can use the app but not change how it is set up.
• Your own business details, logo, currency, tax name and rate, document numbering prefix and date format, all under Settings.
• Printable documents on your own letterhead, built from those settings.
• Light and dark appearance, remembered per person, and screens that work on a phone.

Looking after it

• Back up your database. Your hosting control panel can do this on a schedule, and it is the only copy of your records.
• Keep the .env file private. It holds your database password and your licence key. Never put it in a support ticket or a shared folder.
• When an update is released, the email you get will say what to upload.

Support

Reply to the email that carried your licence key. Say what you were doing and what the screen said, and include the step number if you are still installing.

Licence

One licence, one installation. The licence is tied to the web address you activated it on. Moving to a new address is fine: run php artisan license:deactivate on the old one first, then activate on the new one. Reselling, sharing or publishing the source is not permitted.

© 2026

This guide is included in the download as INSTALL.md. It is published here so you can read it before you buy.