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Frequently Asked Questions

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Licensing

Do I need a license to test Backpack?

You don't need a license code AT ALL. Go ahead and install Backpack CRUD on your machine - it's free and open-source, released under the MIT License.

You only need to pay if you want the extra features provided by our premium add-ons (e.g. Backpack PRO and Backpack DevTools). That's it.

Do I need a license to put a PRO project on a testing domain?

No:

• when you purchase Backpack PRO for Unlimited Projects, you can use it on any number of domains, subdomains and IPs (that's why it's called unlimited);
• when you purchase Backpack PRO for One Project, you get the right to use it on one MAIN domain, but also on as many staging/test/beta domains or subdomains as you need; if someone from our team contacts you, then you can explain, it's perfectly reasonable to have test instances - we know how it goes;

Can I use Backpack to create an open-source project?

Yes you can! Use Backpack CRUD v6, which is free and open-source, released under the MIT License.

Can I use Backpack PRO in an open-source project?

In short - no, you cannot. Please use Backpack CRUD v6 instead, which is free and open-source, released under the MIT License.

Backpack PRO is a closed-source add-on, which requires payment in order to receive an access token. If you did include backpack/pro as a dependency in your open-source software, then your software would no longer be open-source. Everybody who installed your project/package would need to pay for Backpack PRO to get access to it.

Can I get Backpack PRO for free to use in a non-commercial project?

No - we're no longer giving away free licenses. But we have released Backpack CRUD v5 and v6 under the MIT License, which means it's free and open-source. It has fewer features, but you can do absolutely anything you want with it.

Installation

How do I update Backpack to the latest non-breaking version?

First of all, run composer update on your project. That will pull in the latest supported version of all your Backpack packages.

Then you should re-publish the JS and CSS assets. There are two ways to do that:

(A) Run php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Backpack\CRUD\BackpackServiceProvider" --tag=public --force. Please note this will overwrite anything that's already there. This B solution has a downside: unused files are not removed. A few files Backpack no longer uses will still be in your public/packages folder, even though they're no longer used.

(B) If you have NOT touched you public/packages folder, or placed anything custom inside it:

• delete the public/packages directory and all its contents;
• run php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Backpack\CRUD\BackpackServiceProvider" --tag=public
• if you use elFinder, also delete resources/views/vendor/elfinder and run php artisan backpack:filemanager:install

How do I uninstall Backpack from my project?

You can remove Backpack from your project pretty easily, if you decide to stop using it. You just have to do the opposite of the installation process:

# delete the files Backpack has placed inside your application
rm -rf app/Http/Middleware/CheckIfAdmin.php
rm -rf config/backpack
rm -rf config/gravatar.php
rm -rf public/packages
rm -rf resources/views/errors
rm -rf resources/views/vendor/backpack
rm -rf routes/backpack

# delete any CrudControllers you've created, so MAYBE:
rm -rf app/Http/Controllers/Admin

# delete any Requests you've created for your CrudControllers.
# MAKE SURE YOU DON'T NEED ANYTHING IN THIS DIRECTORY ANYMORE.
# You might have OTHER requests that are not Backpack-related.
rm -rf app/Http/Requests

# (MUST) remove other Backpack packages that you are using, like PRO, Editable Columns, DevTools etc:
composer remove --dev backpack/devtools
composer remove backpack/pro
composer remove backpack/editable-columns

etc...

# After everything related to Backpack is deleted, just need to delete the crud!
composer remove backpack/crud

That's it! If you've decided NOT to use Backpack, we'd be super grateful if you could send us an email telling us WHY you decided not to use Backpack, or why it didn't fit your project. It might help us take Backpack in a different direction, a direction where you might want to use it again. Thank you 🙏

Errors when installing paid add-ons

When installing our paid add-ons:

• Composer will add our private repository (repo.backpackforlaravel.com) to your composer.json file;
• Composer will try to download the dist version of the package from there;
  • if successful, you're good;
  • if the dist version fails to download, Composer will throw an error (with an HTTP code like 402); then Composer will try to download the source version of the package straight from our Github repo; that will 100% fail, because you do NOT have access to our private Github repo; to rephrase, you don't have access to the source, only to the dist version;

Unfortunately, we cannot customize the errors that Composer throws, so the error text might be confusing. Please take a look at the HTTP error code shown in the error to understand what happened:

• 400 Error - Bad Request - user and password do not match; please check your auth credentials;
• 401 Error - Unauthorized - no token username or password; please check your auth credentials;
• 402 Error - Payment Required - you are trying to download a version newer than you have access to; our system will send you an email with clear instructions on what to do to require the latest version you have access to; you can also check the latest version you have access to in your Backpack account, and require that version specifically; alternatively, please purchase the same product again to gain access to more updates, then it will work again;
• 404 Error - Not Found - the package that you are trying to download does not exist;
• 429 Error - Too Many Requests - our server has received too many requests from your IP address; please wait one minute and try again;

If you still can't figure it out, please open a new discussion in our Community Forum. Please make sure to:

• mention the steps you have followed to get there (e.g. composer require backpack/pro, php artisan backpack:require:pro etc.);
• include a screenshot of the console output, so we can understand what happened;
• cross out any personal data (e.g. token username or password);