Composer Installation
Composer can be used in several ways to install CodeIgniter4 on your system.
The first technique describes creating a skeleton project using CodeIgniter4, that you would then use as the base for a new webapp. The second technique described below lets you add CodeIgniter4 to an existing webapp,
Note
If you are using a Git repository to store your code, or for
collaboration with others, then the vendor folder would normally
be “git ignored”. In such a case, you will need to do a composer update
when you clone the repository to a new system.
App Starter
The CodeIgniter 4 app starter repository holds a skeleton application, with a composer dependency on the latest released version of the framework.
This installation technique would suit a developer who wishes to start a new CodeIgniter4 based project.
Installation
In the folder above your project root:
> composer create-project codeigniter4/appstarter project-root
The command above will create a “project-root” folder.
If you omit the “project-root” argument, the command will create an “appstarter” folder, which can be renamed as appropriate.
Note
CodeIgniter autoloader does not allow special characters that are illegal in filenames on certain operating systems.
The symbols that can be used are /, _, ., :, \ and space.
So if you install CodeIgniter under the folder that contains the special characters like (, ), etc., CodeIgniter won’t work.
If you don’t need or want phpunit installed, and all of its composer
dependencies, then add the --no-dev option to the end of the above
command line. That will result in only the framework, and the three
trusted dependencies that we bundle, being composer-installed.
A sample such installation command, using the default project-root “appstarter”:
> composer create-project codeigniter4/appstarter --no-dev
Initial Configuration
After installation, a few initial configurations are required. See Initial Configuration for the details.
Upgrading
Whenever there is a new release, then from the command line in your project root:
> composer update
Read the upgrade instructions, and check Breaking Changes and Enhancements.
Structure
Folders in your project after set up:
- app, public, tests, writable
- vendor/codeigniter4/framework/system
Latest Dev
The App Starter repo comes with a builds scripts to switch Composer sources between the
current stable release and the latest development branch of the framework. Use this script
for a developer who is willing to live with the latest unreleased changes, which may be unstable.
The development user guide is accessible online. Note that this differs from the released user guide, and will pertain to the develop branch explicitly.
In your project root:
> php builds development
The command above will update composer.json to point to the develop branch of the
working repository, and update the corresponding paths in config and XML files. To revert
these changes run:
> php builds release
After using the builds command be sure to run composer update to sync your vendor
folder with the latest target build.
Adding CodeIgniter4 to an Existing Project
The same CodeIgniter 4 framework repository described in “Manual Installation” can also be added to an existing project using Composer.
Installation
Develop your app inside the app folder, and the public folder
will be your document root.
In your project root:
> composer require codeigniter4/framework
As with the earlier composer install method, you can omit installing
phpunit and its dependencies by adding the --no-dev argument to the composer require command.
Setting Up
- Copy the
app,public,testsandwritablefolders fromvendor/codeigniter4/frameworkto your project root- Copy the
env,phpunit.xml.distandsparkfiles, fromvendor/codeigniter4/frameworkto your project root- You will have to adjust the
$systemDirectoryproperty in app/Config/Paths.php to refer to the vendor one, e.g.,ROOTPATH . '/vendor/codeigniter4/framework/system'.
Initial Configuration
A few initial configurations are required. See Initial Configuration for the details.
Upgrading
Whenever there is a new release, then from the command line in your project root:
> composer update
Read the upgrade instructions, and check Breaking Changes and Enhancements.
Translations Installation
If you want to take advantage of the system message translations, they can be added to your project in a similar fashion.
From the command line inside your project root:
> composer require codeigniter4/translations
These will be updated along with the framework whenever you do a composer update.