AjglComposerSymlinker

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.

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.

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.