README

The AjglComposerSymlinker component provides a Composer plugin to symlink paths from packages installed with composer to a different location. It is intended for use with web assets.

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This plugin allows you to install web assets to the vendor directory and symlink them to a directory exposed through an HTTP server, without the need to provide a special composer package type with a custom installer.

Suppose the following project layout where we want to install the twbs/bootstrap package:

project/
├── src/
│ ├── Controller.php
│ ├── Model.php
│ └── View.php
├── vendor/
└── www/
 ├── assets/
 | ├── css
 | ├── fonts
 | ├── images
 | └── js
 ├── index.php
 └── .htaccess

Any web asset installed with composer will be stored inside the vendor directory, but we need them to be stored inside www/assets directory. In the Usage section, we will see how to achieve this.

There are some alternatives, but they usually require defining a custom package type in the required package definition.

Installation

To install the latest stable version of this component, open a console and execute the following command:

$ composer require ajgl/composer-symlinker

Usage

1. Require the source package

Add the desired package to the require section of the composer.json file:

{
 "require": {
 "twbs/bootstrap": "^3.3"
 }
}

2. Define symlinks

Create the symlinks definition adding a ajgl-symlinks section inside the extra section of the composer.json file:

{
 "extra": {
 "ajgl-symlinks": {
 "twbs/boostrap": {
 "dist/css": "web/assets/css/bootstrap",
 "dist/js": "web/assets/js/bootstrap",
 "dist/fonts/glyphicons-halflings-regular.eot": "web/assets/fonts/glyphicons-halflings-regular.eot",
 "dist/fonts/glyphicons-halflings-regular.svg": "web/assets/fonts/glyphicons-halflings-regular.svg",
 "dist/fonts/glyphicons-halflings-regular.ttf": "web/assets/fonts/glyphicons-halflings-regular.ttf",
 "dist/fonts/glyphicons-halflings-regular.woff": "web/assets/fonts/glyphicons-halflings-regular.woff",
 "dist/fonts/glyphicons-halflings-regular.woff2": "web/assets/fonts/glyphicons-halflings-regular.woff2"
 }
 }
 }
}

As you can see, you can link directories or files. On Windows platform, the links will be created using the junction feature of NTFS, so you can only link directories.

3. Execute composer

Once the composer.json file is complete:

{
 "require": {
 "ajgl/composer-symlinker": "^0.3",
 "twbs/bootstrap": "^3.3"
 },
 "extra": {
 "ajgl-symlinks": {
 "twbs/bootstrap": {
 "dist/css": "web/assets/css/bootstrap",
 "dist/js": "web/assets/js/bootstrap",
 "dist/fonts/glyphicons-halflings-regular.eot": "web/assets/fonts/glyphicons-halflings-regular.eot",
 "dist/fonts/glyphicons-halflings-regular.svg": "web/assets/fonts/glyphicons-halflings-regular.svg",
 "dist/fonts/glyphicons-halflings-regular.ttf": "web/assets/fonts/glyphicons-halflings-regular.ttf",
 "dist/fonts/glyphicons-halflings-regular.woff": "web/assets/fonts/glyphicons-halflings-regular.woff",
 "dist/fonts/glyphicons-halflings-regular.woff2": "web/assets/fonts/glyphicons-halflings-regular.woff2"
 }
 }
 }
}

Open a console and execute the composer update or composer install command:

$ composer update -v

You will see the following messages in the composer output:

Creating symlinks
 Symlinking package "twbs/bootstrap"
 Symlinking "/home/aj/tmp/lala/vendor/twbs/bootstrap/dist/css" to "/home/aj/tmp/lala/web/assets/css/bootstrap": symlink created
 Symlinking "/home/aj/tmp/lala/vendor/twbs/bootstrap/dist/js" to "/home/aj/tmp/lala/web/assets/js/bootstrap": symlink created
 Symlinking "/home/aj/tmp/lala/vendor/twbs/bootstrap/dist/fonts/glyphicons-halflings-regular.eot" to "/home/aj/tmp/lala/web/assets/fonts/glyphicons-halflings-regular.eot": symlink created
 Symlinking "/home/aj/tmp/lala/vendor/twbs/bootstrap/dist/fonts/glyphicons-halflings-regular.svg" to "/home/aj/tmp/lala/web/assets/fonts/glyphicons-halflings-regular.svg": symlink created
 Symlinking "/home/aj/tmp/lala/vendor/twbs/bootstrap/dist/fonts/glyphicons-halflings-regular.ttf" to "/home/aj/tmp/lala/web/assets/fonts/glyphicons-halflings-regular.ttf": symlink created
 Symlinking "/home/aj/tmp/lala/vendor/twbs/bootstrap/dist/fonts/glyphicons-halflings-regular.woff" to "/home/aj/tmp/lala/web/assets/fonts/glyphicons-halflings-regular.woff": symlink created
 Symlinking "/home/aj/tmp/lala/vendor/twbs/bootstrap/dist/fonts/glyphicons-halflings-regular.woff2" to "/home/aj/tmp/lala/web/assets/fonts/glyphicons-halflings-regular.woff2": symlink created

4. Packages not available at packagist.org

If you want to install a package that is not available in the main composer repository, you can define a new package inside the repositories section of the composer.json file.

{
 "repositories": [
 {
 "type": "package",
 "package": {
 "name": "dojo/dojo",
 "version": "1.11.1",
 "dist": {
 "type": "zip",
 "url": "http://download.dojotoolkit.org/release-1.11.1/dojo-release-1.11.1.zip"
 },
 "type": "library"
 }
 }
 ]
}

Then, you can define the desired symlinks in the ajgl-symlinks section as usual:

{
 "extra": {
 "ajgl-symlinks": {
 "dojo/dojo": {
 ".": "www/dojo"
 }
 }
 }
}

License

This component is under the MIT license. See the complete license in the LICENSE file.

Reporting an issue or a feature request

Issues and feature requests are tracked in the Github issue tracker.

Author Information

Developed with ♥ by Antonio J. García Lagar.

If you find this component useful, please add a ★ in the GitHub repository page and/or the Packagist package page.