composer.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- $Revision$ -->

<chapter xml:id="install.composer" xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" annotations="chunk:false">
 <title>Installation of Composer and third-party packages</title>

 <sect1 xml:id="install.composer.intro">
  <title>Introduction to Composer</title>
  <simpara>
   &link.composer; is a dependency manager for PHP that makes it possible
   to define third-party code packages used by a project that can
   then be easily installed and updated. It leverages the built-in
   <link linkend="language.oop5.autoload">class autoloading features</link>
   of PHP, repositories of PHP packages such as
   <link xlink:href="&url.packagist;">Packagist</link>, and common project
   layout and coding conventions.
  </simpara>
  <simpara>
   For example, if a PHP application or website needs
   to work with <abbrev>UUID</abbrev> values,
   <link xlink:href="&url.packagist.package;ramsey/uuid">Ben Ramsey's
   <literal>ramsey/uuid</literal> package</link> that implements the
   widely known and used types of UUIDs that are defined by
   <link xlink:href="&url.rfc;4122">RFC 4122</link> could be used.
  </simpara>
  <simpara>
   Briefly, this is done by creating a <literal>composer.json</literal>
   in the project, using Composer to install the latest version of the
   package, and including Composer's autoload script to make it available
   to the code. The <link xlink:href="&url.composer;doc/01-basic-usage.md">Composer
   "Basic Usage" documentation</link> goes into this in more depth.
  </simpara>
  <example>
   <title>
    <literal>composer.json</literal> that requires a single package
   </title>
   <programlisting role="javascript">
<![CDATA[
{
    "require": {
        "ramsey/uuid": "^4.7"
    }
}
]]>
   </programlisting>
  </example>

 </sect1>
</chapter>