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Creating Composer Packages¶

You can make the Code Modules you create into Composer packages, or you can create a Composer package for CodeIgniter 4.

Folder Structure¶

Here's a typical directory structure for a Composer package:

your-package-name/
├── .gitattributes
├── .gitignore
├── LICENSE
├── README.md
├── composer.json
├── src/
│   └── YourClass.php
└── tests/
    └── YourClassTest.php

Creating composer.json¶

In the root of your package directory, create a composer.json file. This file defines metadata about your package and its dependencies.

The composer init command helps you create it.

For example, composer.json might look like this:

{
    "name": "your-vendor/your-package",
    "description": "Your package description",
    "type": "library",
    "license": "MIT",
    "autoload": {
        "psr-4": {
            "YourVendor\\YourPackage\\": "src/"
        }
    },
    "authors": [
        {
            "name": "Your Name",
            "email": "yourname@example.com"
        }
    ],
    "require": {},
    "require-dev": {}
}

Add runtime dependencies to require and development dependencies, such as PHPUnit, to require-dev.

Package Name¶

The name field is important here. Package names are generally written in the format "vendor-name/package-name" with all lowercase. Here is a common example:

your-vendor-name: The name that identifies the vendor (creator of the package), such as your name or your organization.
your-package-name: The name of the package you are creating.

Thus, it is important to make the name unique to distinguish it from other packages. Uniqueness is especially important when publishing.

Namespace¶

Choose a namespace prefix and map it to your source directory in autoload.psr-4. The namespace prefix is independent of the Composer package name.

For a package named your-vendor/your-package, you could use the namespace YourVendor\YourPackage with the following mapping:

"autoload": {
    "psr-4": {
        "YourVendor\\YourPackage\\": "src/"
    }
},

This setting instructs Composer to autoload the source code for your package.

Choosing a License¶

If you are not familiar with open source licenses, see https://choosealicense.com/. Many PHP packages, including CodeIgniter, use the MIT license.

Preparing Development Tools¶

There are many tools that help ensure quality code. So you should use them. You can easily install and configure such tools with CodeIgniter DevKit.

Installing DevKit¶

In the root of your package directory, run the following commands:

composer config minimum-stability dev
composer config prefer-stable true
composer require --dev codeigniter4/devkit

The DevKit installs various Composer packages that help your development, and installs templates for them in vendor/codeigniter4/devkit/src/Template. Copy the files from that directory to your project root folder, and edit them to suit your needs.

Configuring Coding Standards Fixer¶

DevKit provides Coding Standards Fixer with CodeIgniter Coding Standard based on PHP-CS-Fixer.

Copy vendor/codeigniter4/devkit/src/Template/.php-cs-fixer.dist.php to your project root folder.

Create the build folder for the cache file:

your-package-name/
├── .php-cs-fixer.dist.php
├── build/

Open .php-cs-fixer.dist.php in your editor, and fix the folder path:

--- a/.php-cs-fixer.dist.php
+++ b/.php-cs-fixer.dist.php
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ use PhpCsFixer\Finder;
 $finder = Finder::create()
     ->files()
     ->in([
-        __DIR__ . '/app/',
+        __DIR__ . '/src/',
         __DIR__ . '/tests/',
     ])
     ->exclude([

That's it. Now you can run Coding Standards Fixer:

vendor/bin/php-cs-fixer fix --ansi --verbose --diff

If you add scripts.cs-fix in your composer.json, you can run it with the composer cs-fix command:

{
    "scripts": {
        "cs-fix": "php-cs-fixer fix --ansi --verbose --diff"
    }
}

Config Files¶

Allowing Users to Override Settings¶

If your package has a configuration file and you want users to be able to override the settings, use config() with the short classname like config('YourConfig') to retrieve the configuration object.

Users can then override the package configuration by placing a configuration class with the same short classname in app/Config that extends the package Config class like YourVendor\YourPackage\Config\YourConfig.

Overriding Settings in app/Config¶

If you need to override or add to known configurations in the app/Config folder, you can use Implicit Registrars.

References¶

We have published some official packages. You can use these packages as references when creating your own packages: