In this episode, we kick things off by integrating the Stripe PHP library into our Laravel project so we can start talking to the Stripe API. We begin by installing the library using Composer, which is always a necessary first step before any Stripe-related logic can happen in your app.
After pulling in the library, we head over to our Stripe dashboard (in test mode—never use live keys for testing!) and grab our secret API key. Instead of hardcoding this sensitive info, we pop it into our .env file under STRIPE_SECRET, and we talk about why this is important, especially when switching between local and production environments.
Next, we set up a config/stripe.php config file to cleanly manage our Stripe keys, making them easily swappable and centrally stored. Following best Laravel practices, we use config files so we never have to reference the .env variables directly throughout our project.
Then we create a StripeServiceProvider, register it, and use Laravel's service container to bind the Stripe client class. This way, we can easily resolve and use our Stripe instance anywhere in the app, without repetitive setup. We keep the setup basic since we only need a few API calls, but it's robust enough to handle more advanced usage later.
By the end of the episode, your Laravel project is all set up to make authenticated requests to Stripe, with everything nicely organized and ready for the next steps.