Lets get together to learn some tips and tricks about composer. We will start with a brief explanation of why composer and move into how to composer. Then finally discuss some composer tricks that most developers dont use on the daily, but none the less are very powerful.

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Composer Tips/Tricks June 23rd, 2017

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Chris Haynes
chris.haynes@icfolson.com
@haynescw
drupal.org/u/haynescw
github.com/haynescw

3. What
3
is
Composer?

4. What Dependency/package
management software.
4
is
Composer?

5. Why use composer?
Generically
Has become the standard in PHP.
Smaller repository size.
Easier to update you packages.
Less overhead on a project.
With Drupal
Installing Drupal
Better module management
Use non-Drupal libraries
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6. Proper vs Improper
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7. Improper!
Don’t manually alter you composer.json unless you know
what you are doing.
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8. Improper!
Do not try to update the entire project at once with
composer update.
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9. Improper!
Don’t update when your not supposed to!
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10. Dry Runs (trick #1)
Use the --dryrun flag when updating a package.
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11. Proper (tip #1)
When merging code into you feature branch, if you see a
change to the composer.lock, don’t forget to install those
changes.
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12. Performance(trick #2)
When running composer for prod artifact, use the --
prefer-dist flag.
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13. Sorting your packages (trick #3)
"config": {
"sort-packages": true
}
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14. Prestissimo (trick #4)
http://bit.ly/2s0Ae0I
Use a parallel install plugin to increase performance.
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15. Finding info on installed packages (tip #2)
composer show
Combine your composer cli with Nix commands
(trick #5)
composer show |grep {package}
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16. Why? (tip #3)
composer why {package}
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17. Forking a package to update it (trick #6)
http://bit.ly/2sun0wI
Fork the repo, make your changes, add you repository to your
composer.json, then change the package version and preface it
with “dev-”
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18. Understand version constraints (tip #4)
http://bit.ly/2suL3LG
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19. Teach your composer how to script tasks (trick #7)
"scripts": {
"nuke": [
"rm -rf vendor composer.lock",
"@composer clearcache",
"@composer install"
]
}
Documentation: http://bit.ly/2suI3yZ
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20. Lock file not a match (tip #5)
composer update --lock
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21. Validate before you commit. (pro tip #lost count)
composer validate --no-check-all –ansi
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22. Don’t forget dependencies
composer update drupal/core --with-dependencies
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23. Keep Composer Up to Date
composer self-update
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24. Patching
composer require cweagans/composer-patches
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"extra": {
"enable-patching": true,
"patches-file": "composer.patches.json”
}

25. Know your commands (tip #3)
http://bit.ly/2s0PV80
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26. Any Questions?
Don’t forget to sprint
@ICFOlson across from
Target Field in the
Ford Center
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