Laravel 8 Redis setup on Windows with xampp

redis-setup-windows.txt

Laravel 8 Redis setup on Windows with xampp
Note: test done using windows 7

1. Install predis on your project
https://laravel.com/docs/8.x/redis#introduction

    composer require predis/predis

- un-comment 'Redis' => Illuminate\Support\Facades\Redis::class, in your config/app.php
- on your .env make sure you have the following variables:

    REDIS_CLIENT=predis
    REDIS_PORT=6379
    
2. Download php_redis.dll on pecl
https://pecl.php.net/package/redis
- extract the zip file and move php_redis.dll to your xampp php ext folder
- usually is at C:\xampp\php\ext
- edit C:\xampp\php\php.ini and make sure it has the extension enabled or add the following line:
    
    [Redis]
    extension=php_redis.dll

3. Download or install Redis-x64-3.2.100 for Windows
https://github.com/MicrosoftArchive/redis/releases/
- if your downloaded the zip don't forget to add the path to your environment variables

4. Restart xampp server
- make sure APP_DEBUG=true in your .env to see any errors
- refresh your laravel config by running the following commands

    php artisan config:clear
    php artisan config:cache

5. Test the following code in your controller

    use Redis;

    class YourController extends Controller
    {
      public function index()
      {
        $redis = new Redis();
        $redis->connect('localhost', 6379);
        $redis->set('user', 'John Doe');
        $value = $redis->get('user');
        dd($value);
      }
    }

- you should see the output "John Doe" when browsing the app on localhost