title: include a class from a different website in laravel new project
body: <p>I am working on a backend api using laravel 5.6
  Already have a website with tons of code - all the answers I found point at create a new folder and adding my classes there that is not an option.
  I would like to include the class from the main site (same server) and use the methods within laravel to generate the data from the api.</p>
  
  <pre><code> Route::get('api/author/full/', array('uses' =&gt; 'AuthorController@getAuthor'));
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I am using this line to include my class:</p>
  
  <pre><code>require_once('/var/www/html/modules/author/models/Author.class.php');
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>laravel is located in a subfolder at <code>/var/www/html/api/</code></p>
  
  <p>this is the error I get when i try to require that file from within the AuthorController : </p>
  
  <pre><code> Fatal error: Call to undefined method ErrorException::getStatusCode() in  /html/api/app/Exceptions/Handler.php on line 61
  
  Fatal error: Call to undefined method Symfony\Component\Debug\Exception\FatalErrorException::getStatusCode() in  /html/api/app/Exceptions/Handler.php on line 61
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>really tried everything here,included it in public/index.php and in other places and none of these things worked. </p>