Cedric Ziel
Fork me on GitHub
2013-09-01

Use composer to quickly initialize your TYPO3 projects

Install TYPO3 with composer in a breeze

What’s probably the most annoying task when starting a new project, may be the initialization of your new project structure. This usually involves one or more of the following Tasks:

  • Downloading the TYPO3 sources
  • Unpack them to a local webserver
  • Configure the base parameters (Database, ImageMagick, cURL..)
  • Initialize the extension list via Extension Manager (which failed often on newer 6.x branches)
  • Import the extensions you need, in the version you need

Attempts to solve it

While you can attempt to template projects (and you should really do that!), this could also lead to some yummy new trouble:

  • outdated dependencies
  • outdated core
  • big blobs of sql (or in our case, t3d files)

Composer

While composer may be not the most common way to manage dependencies in the TYPO3, it could be a real advantage, using it. Composer manages dependencies with cascading versions, suggestions and exclusions as well as platform requirements such as enabled PHP extensions and versions.

To get a quick overview, of what can be done, you can execute the following lines in your cli:

curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
php composer.phar create-project --stability=dev ft3/fluxkitchen-distribution .

This will fetch a project template from a GitHub project of mine and installs a chain of dependencies. But first, let’s examine the composer.json (I exluded the profane parts..):

{
    // Defines the requirements
    "require": {
        // Thanks to the Lightwerk guys, we can define TYPO3 CMS dependencies via composer
        "typo3/cms": "6.1.x",
        // Here, a custom package is required, which has its own dependencies
        "ft3/fluxkitchen": "dev-master"
    },
    "repositories": [
        // Lightwerk composer repository
        {
            "type": "composer",
            "url": "http://composer.lightwerk.com/"
        },
        // The composer package of the FluidTYPO3 project, generated with Satis
        {
            "type": "composer",
            "url": "http://fluidtypo3.github.io/composer-repo/"
        },
        // You can even define your own packages on the fly, great for private packages
        {
            "type": "vcs",
            "url": "https://github.com/cedricziel/fluxkitchen"
        }
    ]
}

What will it do when issueing the command?

  • Install composer.phar to your local workspace
  • Clone the template project to your local workspace
  • run composer install to resolve dependencies, recursively (!)

The fluxkitchen repository itself defines no functionality, but shows the great possibilities. Its composer dependencies are defined as follows:

"require": {
    // We need the composer installers!
    "composer/installers": "*",
    "ft3/fluidcontent": "*",
    "ft3/fluidpages": "*",
    "ft3/ft3_empty": "*"
},

Recursive behaviour at its best. :-) Any of the above listed packages (except composer/installers) has a strong dependency to the ft3/flux package, which will be resolved dynamically.

Result

With this single line of command, you get:

  • a current TYPO3 core ("typo3/cms": "6.1.x",)
  • a set of extensions (most current versions):
    • ft3_empty
    • flux
    • fluidpages
    • fluidcontent
    • fluxkitchen

What else can composer do for us?

Admittedly-we didnt reach all of our goals defined above, but I will keep fiddeling around with composer postInstall commands. That way, one could:

  • fix permissions on a regular base (on each composer update for example)
  • a post-install wizard to configure the database (install tool api?)
  • install extensions (not just downloading them) via Core API
  • …

Outlook

Let’s recall the list once again:

  • Downloading the TYPO3 sources
  • Unpack them to a local webserver
  • Configure the base parameters (Database, ImageMagick, cURL..)
  • Initialize the extension list via Extension Manager (which failed often on newer 6.x branches) partially solved. All extensions defined a depenencies are downloaded, which circumvents the need for it ;)
  • Import the extensions you need, in the version you need

Given you used the Provider Extension pattern, you could have a running TYPO3 installation with 0 overhead in minutes.

I hope you like the approach-I will constantly try to evolve it and link follow-ups. What are your approaches to template projects?

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