By default Nginx is not capable of processing dynamic web pages with PHP so it requires the use of specific additional plugins for this purpose. One of these plugins is FPM (FastCGI Process Manager). FPM is an alternative PHP FastCGI implementation with some additional features (mostly) useful for heavy-loaded sites. It is the preferred method of processing PHP pages with Nginx and is faster than traditional CGI based methods.
Laravel is an open-source PHP web framework intended for the development of web applications following the model–view–controller (MVC) architectural pattern and based on Symfony. The source code of Laravel is hosted on GitHub and licensed under the terms of MIT License.
Composer is a tool for dependency management in PHP. It allows you to declare the libraries your project depends on and it will manage (install/update) them for you.
Composer requires PHP 5.3.2+ to run. A few sensitive PHP settings and compile flags are also required, but when using the installer you will be warned about any incompatibilities.
