Everyone loves saving time when possible. That goes especially for the likes of web developers. Well, using Composer on shared hosting gives you just that. You save a lot of time while doing exactly what you need when managing your web applications via this exceptional tool. Yes, you may need some Command-Line knowledge, but that\u2019s not as hard to get as some may think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
In this post, we go over what exactly Composer is, as well as all the reasons you should use it on a daily basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Table of Contents:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Composer is a tool for dependencies management. It enables the user to easily download all the required packages\/libraries that their PHP project can use. The tool is dependent on the PHP service. You can run Composer on shared hosting\u2014it is available on all FastComet Shared Hosting plans<\/a>. Composer\u2019s main idea is to be the most used dependencies management tool – same as Node\u2019s npm<\/a> and Ruby\u2019s Bundler<\/a>, but for one of the most used backend programming languages – PHP., that enables you to easily download all the required packages\/libraries your PHP project can use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Composer requires PHP 5.3.2+ to run. Currently, the latest PHP version has on all Shared Hosting servers is PHP 8.1<\/a>. Additionally, you can choose from PHP 5.6, 7.0<\/a>, 7.1, 7.2<\/a>, 7.3<\/a>, 7.4, and 8.0<\/a>. However, we always recommend that all our clients use the latest PHP version because it\u2019s the most secure option. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you decide to install Composer on your local machine<\/a> for testing purposes, you should know that there are a few sensitive PHP settings and compile flags required. That said, when using the installer, you will be warned about any incompatibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Composer is multi-platform, and the goal is for it to run equally well on Windows, Linux, and macOS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When using Composer, it\u2019s preferable that you are familiar with the Command Line Basics<\/a>. It\u2019s much better than copy-pasting commands from the Internet, just hoping for them to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Composer is the de-facto dependency management tool for the entire PHP community. It is widely used across the world of PHP. According to Packagist statistics<\/a>, as of 2022, there are more than 330,000 packages available via Composer, and they have cumulatively been installed over seven billion times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Composer is an invaluable tool for developers, site builders, and site architects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you need to download and install PHP libraries (core, modules, themes, libraries, etc.), then you should be using Composer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n The most common reference to Composer<\/a> is an actual orchestra. Think of your web hosting account as one big orchestra and all of your PHP projects as different musicians. Every composer needs to show the tempo to all these musicians so they can all perform their best when a concert is underway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Composer actually installs for you packages\/libraries defined by your project. If you have, for example, 20 projects in 20 different folders, you can use Composer in each folder to download and install the requirements of your projects with a few simple commands, which you will find below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You probably wonder what you will need this tool for. With the increasing demand from Backend PHP Developers for an easy dependencies management tool, the requirements for the Shared Hosting environment are also growing to a point where the hosting companies cannot afford to miss this feature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First and most important, you will need SSH access to your account. If you are not quite sure how to get that, please submit a support ticket, and our technical support team will gladly provide you with such.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Secondly, you will need to have a good knowledge of the file system of Linux and, most importantly\u2014where your projects are stored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, to use composer, you will need to type the composer command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pretty easy, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s cut down the theory and see how Composer actually performs when it comes to the installation process for one of the most used PHP Frameworks \u2013 Symfony 2<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, let\u2019s begin with the creation of our project:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Replace \u201ctest_project\u201d with the actual name of your project, and keep in mind that the process will create a folder with the same name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After a brief installation log for the dependencies required by Symfony 2, you will be prompted with the question if you would like to install the Acme Demo bundle, which is the default one for Symfony:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Next, you will be asked for the database details your Symfony application should be using. If you are not familiar with the cPanel service and you have not a glimpse of how to create a database\/username and a password, we got your back as we have a detailed tutorial on How to create a cPanel database<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here you should press Enter as this is the default database driver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Enter again, as this is the address for the database server available for your hosting account with us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The default port for the MariaDB service \u2013 3306 on all our packages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Please replace the database_name with the actual database name you have created earlier, the database_user with the user having privileges to operate with the created database, and finally, the \u201cpassword\u201d with the actual password for that user.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Next, you will be prompted with the settings for the SMTP protocol, but you should set that up only if you will need to use it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, Composer will ask you for the \u201cLocale\u201d that should be used by your application and, of course, the \u201csecret\u201d token which will be used for encoding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After a few seconds, you will get a message that the assets are installed for the used bundles, and with that, the installation is finished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, if you access yourdomain.com\/test_project\/web\/app_dev.php (where yourdomain.com should be replaced with your actual domain and test_project with the actual name of your project), you will be able to access the Symfony installation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Keep in mind that if you have not allowed your IP address, you should do so by editing the code of the app_dev.php file located in the project folder under the web\/ subfolder. When editing the file, you will need to find the following line:<\/p>\n\n\n\n This should be on line 14, and there you will need to edit \u201cYOUR_IP_ADDRESS\u201d with your actual IP address which you should be able to check via some IP checking tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s be clear\u2014nothing is perfect. Using Composer may have many advantages, but it is not without its drawbacks. The tool has gotten a bad rap in some parts of the dev community, and that’s not without cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us briefly go over the top two types of Composer “problems” that users most frequently encounter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Composer is great at finding interoperable versions of dependencies, but sometimes that\u2019s just not a possibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your application’s declared dependencies, or the subsidiary dependencies declared by your dependencies, may simply not be interoperable in the requested versions. Typically, this can be resolved by tweaking the version constraint of one or more of your application’s dependencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the process of discovering exactly which dependencies are in conflict and finding a suitable tweak can be frustrating, and Composer is poor at explaining the root cause clearly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Composer is a Command Line tool. For many users, this alone can be intimidating. However, if you love GUI<\/a>s, then you’re free to explore some of the unofficial GUIs for Composer:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t
What is Composer?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Composer System Requirements<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Who Uses Composer?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Composer Makes Your Project a Fine-Tuned Orchestra<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Why We Use Composer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
$ composer<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nA Quick Example<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
$ composer create-project Symfony\/framework-standard-edition test_project<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nGenerating autoload files Would you like to install Acme demo bundle? [y\/N]<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nCreating the \"app\/config\/parameters.yml\" file Some parameters are missing. Please provide them. database_driver (pdo_mysql):<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\ndatabase_host (127.0.0.1):<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\ndatabase_port (null): 3306<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\ndatabase_name (symfony): database_name database_user (root): database_user database_password (null): password<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nlocale (en): secret (ThisTokenIsNotSoSecretChangeIt):<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n|| !(in_array(@$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'], array('127.0.0.1','YOUR_IP_ADDRESS' , 'fe80::1', '::1')) || php_sapi_name() === 'cli-server')<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nAcknowledgment of Limitations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Resolving conflicts<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
CLI only<\/h3>\n\n\n\n