Manage dependencies with Composer

Spryker Cloud Commerce OS (SCCOS) uses Composer as a dependency manager. Composer allows declaring the libraries your project depends on and the versions required as well as it will manage them for you. Composer is downloaded as composer.phar file (PHP archive). To start using Composer in your project, all you need is a composer.json file. The file defines the required dependencies and is located in the root folder of the project.

SCCOS consists of a number of independent components. Each of them has a dedicated Git repository. Every module contains its own composer.json that defines its dependencies:

{
    "name": "spryker/cart",
    "description": "Cart module",
    "license": "proprietary",
    "require": {
        "php": ">=7.4",
        "spryker/calculation": "^4.0.0",
        "spryker/cart-extension": "^1.1.0",
        "spryker/kernel": "^3.19.0",
        "spryker/messenger": "^3.0.0",
        "spryker/quote": "^2.0.0",
        "spryker/zed-request": "^3.0.0"
    }

You can check the current composer.json file in the corresponding repository of the Cart module.

In the project level composer.json file you can specify the components that you want to use along with their versions like it is done in the Spryker Commerce OS:

...
    "spryker-shop/agent-page": "^1.0.0",
    "spryker-shop/agent-widget": "^1.0.0",
    "spryker-shop/availability-notification-page": "^1.0.0",
    "spryker-shop/availability-notification-widget": "^1.0.0",
    "spryker-shop/availability-widget": "^1.0.0",
    "spryker-shop/business-on-behalf-widget": "^1.0.0",
    "spryker-shop/calculation-page": "^1.0.0",
    "spryker-shop/cart-code-widget": "^1.0.0",
    "spryker-shop/cart-note-widget": "^1.0.0",
    "spryker-shop/cart-page": "^3.0.0",
    "spryker-shop/cart-page-extension": "^1.0.0",
...

Core updates

Pulling hundreds of composer dependencies declared in composer.json file takes time and can be tricky sometimes. On the one hand, you want your system to have all the newest functionality and improvements, but on the other hand, you might be reluctant to invest additional development effort into the updates. While minor updates do not affect compatibility, that might not be the case for major updates. Check the recommendations below in order to perform the core updates smoothly.

• Stay Up-to-Date with the New Features First of all, make sure you do not miss our release mail newsletter (subscribe to them and be well informed). Staying up-to-date with the improvements and the new features will help you to understand what releases will bring business value to your company. It’s not recommended to take all major releases or the new modules just because they exist. Once you have taken a module, keep on following the release notes for minor releases and patches and incorporate them once they come out. This method of continuous updates should help to prevent the likelihood of incompatibility and breaks in your project. Always think of the business value you gain from the update, as updates always take some time and it’s up to you to decide if the migration effort is justified in your specific case.

• Know What You Have We update dependencies based on Atomic Release process. To check what you have installed you can use the composer.lock file, that reflects the real status of your installation. composer.lock file can also be found in project’s root folder.

• Check for Newer Module Versions You can easily keep track of new module versions using composer-versions-check as add-on for your local composer tool. It will warn you about outdated Spryker Commerce OS module dependencies.

• Stay Up-to-Date with the PHP version Staring from November 2021, all Spryker modules require PHP 7.4 as a minimum version. Please make sure to upgrade your server to the latest stable PHP version and adjust (or remove) config section in composer.json:

"config": {
  	"platform": {
      	"php": "7.4.15"
    },
},

Make sure to adjust this platform version to your production environment. So if you use 8.0.10 for example, this should be also reflected here to have a matching local installation including all dependencies and their compatible versions.

To update all the modules, run the following command:

composer update "spryker/*"

This will fetch the latest matching versions (according to your composer.json file) and update the lock file with the new versions.

To check what major updates are available without changing composer.json, run:

composer outdated

Just for the modules that have been extended (factory and classes have been overwritten) the version number needs to be changed and updates need to be performed manually.

For any installation that does not require working in vendor directories, make sure to always use composer install/update with --prefer-dist flag:

composer install --prefer-dist

to use deployment-like download of all packages as zip files. This also dramatically speeds it up as side-effect.

Replace Spryker module dependencies

Each Spryker module might have several dependent modules that provide communication, utilities and added functionality. For example, spryker/product needs a dependent spryker/product-label module as the product label cannot be attached when there is no product itself. Usually, adjustments are done via our plugin mechanism or via class extensions. However, when introducing a massive functional change, you may need to replace an entire core module with one of your own (or a 3rd party). To do so, there are two steps that you need to follow. Firstly, you will need to replace the module, and secondly, connect the module to the new functionality.

The following process describes adding a replace command into a new module to indicate that it replaces a core module.

For each module that you want to add:

• Replace the old module with the new one by creating a dummy module repository in a directory accessible to composer.

  1. Name or rename the new module by using the old module’s name and prefixing it with replace_. For example, create a dummy file called replace_refund to replace the refund module. This will help to keep track of any replaces you do in the project.
  2. In the newly created dummy module directory, create an empty composer.json file and add the following Composer Configuration Information.
  3. Add the newly created module to your project’s composer.json file by going into your project’s composer.json and adding the new location.
  4. Check if the core module is in your project’s composer.json file and if it is, remove it.

• Execute composer update with the replace module name:

  composer update "replace_*the name of the module you are replacing*
  

  Running composer update will remove all mentions of the module (for example: refund) and replace it with your module (for example: replace_refund).

{
"name": “[vendor]/ replace_[the name of the module you are replacing] ",
"replace": {
"spryker/[the name of the module you are replacing] ":"*"
},
"description": “[add_decription_of_what_you_are_replacing]"			
}

If you added a replace module, navigate to vendor/spryker/ and check that composer added the new replace_ module/s to this directory.

To check this worked:

Navigate to [ROOT]/vendor/spryker/ and check that composer removed the modules that needed to be replaced from the directory. The next step is to connect the module to your new functionality.

Setting up connection with the new functionality

Now that we have replaced a core module with a different one, we need to connect the rest of the OS to it.

To set up connectivity, check the usage of the replaced module and adapt the logic to the new module.

For further assistance on project level implementations, email us support@spryker.com.