TYPO3 Extension with 3rd part composer dependencies. composer.json is placed in Resources/Private - Updated

README.md

Motivation

As long as composer support in CMS is "not there yet", you need to get around somehow.

Say you want to use the (awesome) markdown library, you need a way to get it in.

How

1. Use a container extension with a private namespace
2. Create composer.json
3. Include the autoloader for both contexts
4. profit

Why a separate composer.json?

Each extension gets a root composer.json sooner or later - but this one is irrelevant for now as we dont want to rely on the standard TYPO3 CMS classloader, but rather use the functionality offered by composer to create an autoloader for us.

For now, the package manager also awaited (TYPO3) packages to exist for every library you require.

Code

Note: You have to create all this in an extension. I put emphasis on the point that it should be a separate extension.

composer.json

Create a file composer.json in your container extension in Resources/Private (you can use composer init):

{
    "name": "cedricziel/packagename",
    "config": {
      "vendor-dir": "Libraries"
    },
    "require": {
        "michelf/php-markdown": "~1.4"
    },
    "authors": [
        {
            "name": "Cedric Ziel",
            "email": "cedric @t cedric-ziel.com"
        }
    ]
}

Note the vendor-dir directive. This allows you to determine where composer will put the libs and the class loader you have to include.

ext_tables.php && ext_localconf.php

I cant explain the exact sematics very well, but you will want to have both. Otherwise your classes wont load in a cached context.

ext_tables.php

<?php
if (!defined('TYPO3_MODE')) {
	die('Access denied.');
}

$composerAutoloadFile = \TYPO3\CMS\Core\Utility\ExtensionManagementUtility::extPath($_EXTKEY)
	. 'Resources/Private/Libraries/autoload.php';

require_once($composerAutoloadFile);

ext_localconf.php

<?php
if (!defined('TYPO3_MODE')) {
	die('Access denied.');
}

$composerAutoloadFile = \TYPO3\CMS\Core\Utility\ExtensionManagementUtility::extPath($_EXTKEY)
	. 'Resources/Private/Libraries/autoload.php';

require_once($composerAutoloadFile);

Notes

This is a workaround - let me get this straight. Problems could arise if you do that overly often with many different libraries and end up with different loadable versions. I therefore propose you creat one such container extension per project.

Edit

• added an example package that's actually used: https://github.com/cedricziel/typo3-ext-slugify

I think it would be better when you use Resources/Private/PHP as path for your composer.json. Or not?

Adjust it to your taste, @rengaw83 - There is no convention and this is a managed library instead of dropping a bunch of classes somewhere.

@cedricziel Is this still the way to go for dependency management in extensions in TYPO3 6.2 LTS?

This approach is valid for all versions (in fact: every version that reads the ext_* files) until composer is natively supported (which i dont expect to happen too soon).

Thank you very much for your help.

How do you call such an autoloaded 3rd-Party-Class in you own Controller? Just like this?

$foo = new \Vendor\Classname();

Maybe you have a repo with an extension, where you actually use a 3rd party library? Would love to see it in reality :)

@christianbaer yes. basically you can leverage PHP native namespaces the way they are meant to be.

Please have a look at http://php.net/manual/de/language.namespaces.php and https://getcomposer.org/doc/01-basic-usage.md#autoloading to get a better understanding about those topics

As far as I know ext_localconf.php are always loaded so it should only be nescessary to require the autoload file there (please correct me if I'm wrong).

Added an example extension that uses a composer script to package the library https://github.com/cedricziel/typo3-ext-slugify

@cedricziel Should I manually execute composer install and commit Libraries folder into repository?

This gist is up-to-date in 2021 ? (or Composer has been included..)

EDIT: This gist work in 2021, thanks ;)