Composer Cheatsheet

Composer: Detailed explanation of PHP dependency management tools and quick lookup table

This article will explore in-depth Composer - the cornerstone of PHP project dependency management, and focus on its efficient quick lookup table. With Packagist.org, Composer provides developers with easy access to hundreds of libraries.

Key points:

• Composer is a key tool for managing PHP project dependencies, accessing hundreds of libraries through Packagist.org. Composer quick lookup table is an excellent resource for understanding all its functions.
• Composer quick lookup table is mainly divided into two parts: composer.phar command line switch and composer.json file configuration. It provides a comprehensive list of command line options and configurations, with examples and detailed instructions.
• Although there is only one page, the Composer quick lookup table is very useful for developers to understand and maximize the use of Composer. It provides enough detail to not feel overwhelmed and is open source, allowing the community to contribute and improve.

(This article is sponsored by AppDynamics. Thank you for your support for the sponsors who made SitePoint possible!)

PHP today is no longer the same as before. It is a more elegant and mature language with countless improvements and additions. Composer is one of the key additions, it is the de facto PHP project dependency management standard, which allows you to access hundreds of ready-made libraries via Packagist.org by default.

I won't go into details about how to use Composer, because there are already many excellent articles on SitePoint explaining this (for example, this article by Alexander Cogne).

Instead, I will explore it from a different perspective, taking you through the excellent Composer quick lookup table I have recently discovered.

If you want to quickly browse the video overview, watch the embedded video below. Otherwise, continue reading. I suggest you do both.

Composer is powerful and you can do a lot of things with it. For example, you can use composer.phar file:

• Add Composer support to existing projects
• Run scripts in response to various events, such as pre and post install, pre and post package updates
• Specify custom autoloader
• Distinguish dependencies based on the project being in Development, Testing, Production, or other specific environment

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Use hundreds of ready-made packages with Packagist.org From these examples alone, you can see that Composer is very powerful and has a lot to remember. So, although you use it in every project, do you understand all the features it offers? Or are you using the same command line switches and configuration options time and time again without considering other available options? If you are like me, I suggest you belong to the latter. Today, I want to help you correct this and make the most of Composer with a quick lookup table. I'm sure you'll understand why it's so true; soon you'll put it in a fixed label like a PHP manual. It's really good!

Two main parts

It mainly contains two main parts:

1. composer.pharCommand line switch
2. composer.jsonFile

composer.pharCommand line switch

This section lists all command line switches that you can pass to composer.phar via the command line. What's more, hover your mouse over the right and you'll see a more detailed description of each switch.

It lists the most commonly used and most commonly used options to more advanced options. Here is an example:

• install – Set dependencies in the vendor directory
• – Update the self-update file to the latest version composer.phar
• – Set Composer support in existing or new projectsinit
• – Verify existing validate filescomposer.json
• – Perform automatic checkdiagnose
• – Create an archive of Composer package archive

By using the quick lookup table, I learned that by passing the

switch to --optimize you can get up to 20% performance gains for your project. dump-autoload

Isn't it very good? Well, I could have figured out this out by testing or looking up the documentation, but the quick lookup table makes it quick and easy.

File configurationcomposer.json

I suggest this is the part you spend most of your time in the quick lookup table. While the call

can be largely scripted, the configuration of each project you need may often be different, requiring a variety of different options each time. composer.phar

So, in this regard, the

part is definitely your friend. Like composer.json, it shows an example using each option. It lists all options, starting with the most common options such as name, description, author, and composer.phar that provide key information about the package and its dependencies. require

is a good example, showing the authors name, email, homepage and role of the two example authors , as shown below:

<code class="language-json">"authors": [
    {
        "name": "Xavier Lacot",
        "email": "xlacot@jolicode.com",
        "homepage": "http://www.lacot.org",
        "role": "Developer"
    },
    {
        "name": "Benjamin Clay",
        "email": "bclay@jolicode.com",
        "homepage": "http://ternel.net",
        "role": "Developer"
    }
],</code>

Then there are those more advanced options that we may not use often.

• – When users need help, you can find a list of support options in it support
• – You can set specific autoload mapping options for PHP autoloader autoload
• – Allows you to go beyond the standard Packagist backend, add PEAR, use version control tools such as GitHub, Bitbucket, or self-hosted private packages using Satis. repositories

The following is an example of the

section. You can see that it lists how to use the static class method of the namespace class to respond to multiple events. scripts

<code class="language-json">"authors": [
    {
        "name": "Xavier Lacot",
        "email": "xlacot@jolicode.com",
        "homepage": "http://www.lacot.org",
        "role": "Developer"
    },
    {
        "name": "Benjamin Clay",
        "email": "bclay@jolicode.com",
        "homepage": "http://ternel.net",
        "role": "Developer"
    }
],</code>

Like the composer.phar section, hover over them and you will see some details on the right as well as usage examples.

Conclusion

I believe this is a great tool to make the most of Composer. Some people might say that it is only one page long and the details are not sufficient; I disagree.

The

Quick Lookup table is designed to display example usages of each command line option and list the complete composer.json file examples, combined with detailed descriptions of each aspect and further usage examples, which is an elegant method.

You can get all the information you need without being overloaded. What do you think? Do you think it can be done better and provide more information? Or is it just the right length? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Because it is open source, if you find something to improve, typos, or usually want to add more information, get involved, fork it and send a pull request.

Otherwise, please enjoy.

Composer Quick Lookup Table FAQ

What is the purpose of Composer quick lookup table?

Composer quick lookup table is a quick reference guide for developers using Composer (a dependency management tool in PHP). It provides a list of commands and descriptions for managing and installing project dependencies. This quick lookup table is designed to help developers save time and increase productivity because all the necessary commands are concentrated in one place.

How to install Composer?

To install Composer, you need to install PHP on your system. You can download the Composer installer from the official website and run it in a terminal or command prompt. The installer will check your PHP settings and download the composer.phar file in your project directory. You can then move this file to a directory in PATH to make it globally available.

What is the purpose of the "require" command in Composer?

The "require" command in Composer is used to add new packages to your project. When you run this command followed by the package name, Composer will look for the package in the Packagist repository, download it, and add it to your composer.json file. It also updates the composer.lock file with the exact version of the installed package.

How to update packages in a project?

You can update packages in your project by running the "update" command in Composer. This command will check for new versions of packages listed in the composer.json file in the Packagist repository. If a new version is found, Composer will download it and update your composer.lock file.

What is the difference between "require" and "require-dev" in Composer?

The "require" and "require-dev" sections in the

composer.json file specify the packages your project depends on. The “require” section lists the packages required for the project to run, while the “require-dev” section lists the packages required only in development, such as test tools and documentation generators.

How to delete packages from a project?

You can delete packages from your project by running the "remove" command in Composer followed by the package name. This command will delete the package from your composer.json and composer.lock files and delete the package file from the vendor directory.

composer.lockWhat is the purpose of the file?

composer.lock Files are snapshots of the exact version of the project dependencies. When you run the "install" command, Composer reads this file and installs the packages listed there. This ensures that everyone involved in the project uses the same package version.

How to list all installed packages in a project?

You can list all installed packages in your project by running the "show" command in Composer. This command displays a list of all installed packages in the project and their versions.

composer.jsonWhat is the "autoload" part in the file?

composer.json The "autoload" section in the file specifies how Composer automatically loads the project's classes. Automatic loading is a mechanism that automatically contains or requires class files when using a class. This eliminates the need to include or require a class file manually in the code.

How to specify the specific version of the package to be installed?

You can specify the specific version of the package to be installed by appending the version number after the package name in the "require" command. For example, "composer require vendor/package:1.2.3" will install the package for version 1.2.3. You can also specify version constraints in the composer.json file.

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