Composer require and dependency management in PHP - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Composer require and dependency management

📖 Scenario: You are building a simple PHP project that needs to use an external library for handling HTTP requests. Composer is the tool that helps you manage these external libraries, called dependencies.In this project, you will learn how to add a dependency using Composer and check that it is installed correctly.

🎯 Goal: Learn how to use composer require to add a dependency to your PHP project and verify it is installed by checking the vendor folder and composer.json file.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a new PHP project folder

Initialize Composer in the project

Use composer require to add the Guzzle HTTP client library

Verify the dependency is installed and listed in composer.json

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Composer is the standard tool for managing PHP project dependencies. It helps you add, update, and remove libraries easily without manual downloads.

💼 Career

Knowing Composer is essential for PHP developers to manage project libraries efficiently and keep projects up to date with the latest versions.

1

Initialize a new Composer project

Open your terminal and run composer init --no-interaction inside your project folder to create a composer.json file with default settings.

PHP

# Run the command 'composer init --no-interaction' in your terminal
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use the terminal command composer init --no-interaction to quickly create a composer.json file.

2

Add Guzzle HTTP client dependency

Run composer require guzzlehttp/guzzle in your terminal to add the Guzzle HTTP client library as a dependency to your project.

PHP

# Run the command 'composer require guzzlehttp/guzzle' in your terminal
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use composer require guzzlehttp/guzzle to add the Guzzle library.

3

Check installed dependencies

Open the composer.json file and verify that guzzlehttp/guzzle is listed under the require section. Also, check that the vendor folder exists in your project directory.

PHP

# Open composer.json and check for 'guzzlehttp/guzzle' under 'require'
# Check that the 'vendor' folder exists
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Open composer.json in a text editor and look for the require section. The vendor folder should be created after installing dependencies.

4

Use Guzzle in a PHP script and output version

Create a PHP file named test_guzzle.php with code that loads Composer's autoloader and prints the Guzzle version using GuzzleHttp\Client::VERSION. Run the script and print the output.

PHP

<?php
require 'vendor/autoload.php';

// Print the Guzzle version below
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use require 'vendor/autoload.php'; to load dependencies. Then print \GuzzleHttp\Client::VERSION to show the version.