Using Composer with PHP global include path

Question

I was using Zend's autoloader before meeting with Composer.

I have got a library (let's call it LibEx) which is in PHP's global include path (c:\xampp\php\pear). It must be in a global include folder because a lot of project uses it. So, if I change a function in LibEx every project can access the latest version.

And if I want to push my code to server, I simply copy my LibEx folder to library folder which is autoloadable by Zend. Before Composer I was using this method:

set_include_path(implode(PATH_SEPARATOR, array(
    realpath(APPLICATION_PATH . '/library'),
    realpath(APPLICATION_PATH . '/library/Zend'),
    get_include_path(),
)));

include "Zend/Loader/Autoloader.php";
Zend_Loader_Autoloader::getInstance()->registerNamespace('LibEx');

Now I'm in love with Composer. It's really fantastic and I can autoload my project specific library with it too:

"autoload": {
    "psr-0": {"MyLib": "src/"}
}

But how can I autoload LibEx folder which is not in the DocumentRoot or WebRoot? And how to still autoload even if it's in server and copied under src folder?

Answer 1

Did you try this?

"autoload": {
    "psr-0": {"MyLib": "c:\somewhere\project\src"}
}

On Linux soft linking folders would be a possible solution, I don't know if Windows do support it this days or not.

Answer 2

You can add :

"config": {
    "use-include-path": true
},

to your composer.json, this will take into account paths defined in global php configuration, and you don't have to hardcode the full path.