automate environment file creation

added a post install script to the composer.json file to automate the
creation of the .env file which hold app specific configs

also added a helper function to create new keys in the future

app/Helpers/StringHelpers.php

@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 <?php
 
+use Illuminate\Encryption\Encrypter;
+
 function createUUID()
 {
     if (function_exists('com_create_guid') === true) {
@@ -56,6 +58,11 @@ function randomString(int $length)
     return $string;
 }
 
+function createAppKey()
+{
+    return 'base64:' . base64_encode(Encrypter::generateKey(config('app.cipher')));
+}
+
 function delete_directory($dirPath)
 {
     if (is_dir($dirPath)) {

composer.json

@@ -67,6 +67,10 @@
         ],
         "start": [
             "@php -S localhost:8000 -t public/"
+          ],
+        "post-install-cmd": [
+            "php -r \"copy('.env.example', '.env');\"",
+            "php artisan key:generate"
           ]
     },
     "extra": {