Do I need the PHP and composer installed to host app on Heroku?

Question

I made a simple chatroom app which consists of php, css, and html files (no database). It's currently hosted on my school server but I want to put it on Heroku. Heroku is telling me I have to install PHP and something called a composer on my computer. Is this required for the app to work? I thought it was as easy as just uploading the files to the server since that's how it was for my school server. If it's required, could anyone explain what installing PHP and the composer would do?

Heroku instructions: https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/getting-started-with-php#introduction

Answer 1

Is this required for the app to work?

for deploying your php app to heroku u will need php and composer installed on your computer . and heroku toolbelt as well.

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I thought it was as easy as just uploading the files to the server

heroku is a little different than your normal servers. you can learn more at their about page . its a platform as a service and you need to use git to deploy applications on heroku . their docs will give necessary information . Its must more easier than traditional workflow once you are used to it.

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what installing PHP and the composer would do?

installing php system wide will let you run your applications from command line, you will be able to use php command on command line. composer is a dependency manager for php , this post will give you more info about composer.

Composer is a dependency manager for PHP. Composer will manage the dependencies you require on a project by project basis. This means that Composer will pull in all the required libraries, dependencies and manage them all in one place.