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Composer

Use composer to download Moodle code​

Composer.json now includes meta information and hence composer can be used to download the Moodle code base. You can do it by creating composer.json file with following information

{
    "repositories": [
        {
            "type": "vcs",
            "url": "https://github.com/moodle/moodle.git"
        }
    ],
    "require": {
        "moodle/moodle": "v4.2.0"
    }
}

And then execute:

php composer.phar install

How to prepare and submit composer changes​

There are a number of situations where we need to update the bundled composer.json] in core. When we upgrade, for a given branch, the phpunit or the behat-extension versions... we also have to update the composer.lock file, in order to guarantee that all the tests will run in a stable, verified environment.

As far as there are a number of variables affecting how that lock file will be generated, here there are some standard steps to follow, in order to guarantee that any change to composer will be always applied in the same, standard and verified way.

  1. Pre-requisite: Always use the lower PHP version supported in the branch the changes are happening. So, if a given branch (MOODLE_37_STABLE) works with PHP 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3, all the following steps will be executed using PHP 7.1 (the lower version supported).
  2. Perform the required changes to the composer.json file. Normally.
  3. Remove the composer.lock file that is going to be regenerated.
    rm composer.lock
  4. Remove completely the vendor directory.
    rm -fr vendor
  5. Clean all composer caches.
    php composer.phar clearcache
  6. Run php composer.phar update, a new composer.lock will be regenerated.
  7. Check that the composer.lock file, together with other changes, does include the changes you've performed in the composer.json file.
  8. Ideally, run both phpunit and behat tests and verify that there isn't any problem, using all the supported PHP versions.
  9. Done, you can send the changes for review, integration and, if everything goes ok, will be applied upstream without problem.

Runtime status checks​

Moodle provides a Composer runtime status API for inspecting the state of Composer-managed dependencies.

The API can be used to:

  • Check whether Composer dependencies are installed.
  • Verify that installed package versions match those recorded in composer.lock.
  • Identify missing packages.
  • Identify outdated packages.

Obtaining the service​

$composer = \core\di::get(\core\composer::class);

Checking Composer installation status​

To determine whether Composer dependencies are installed:

if ($composer->is_installed()) {
    echo 'Composer dependencies are installed.';
}

Retrieving overall status​

$status = $composer->get_status();

if (!$status->installed) {
    echo 'Composer dependencies are not installed.';
} else if (!$status->current) {
    echo 'One or more Composer packages require attention.';
}

The get_status() method returns a \core\composer\status object containing the overall Composer runtime status and the status of all packages defined in composer.lock.

The status object also provides convenience methods for identifying packages in a particular state:

$current = $status->current_packages();
$missing = $status->missing_packages();
$outdated = $status->outdated_packages();

Checking a specific package​

$package = $composer->get_package_status('composer/installers');

The get_package_status() method returns a \core\composer\package_status object containing information about the package's installation state and version information.