Outsource Laravel Development Partner - $2500/Month | Bacancy

Developing Laravel Packages with Local Composer Dependencies

Published on by

Developing Laravel Packages with Local Composer Dependencies image

Developing Composer packages locally through a local file symlink speeds up development immensely when you want to create Laravel packages and try them out on a real application. I was reading about a fancy bash alias by Caleb Porzio, which is a bash alias inspired by npm link.

I have been working on improving my local workflow for taking a Laravel package from development to release, and I often find myself installing my dependency through the GitHub repo, and then continue running composer update over and over as I update things because I am lazy.

I thought I’d document my workflow for developing new and existing Laravel packages and running them in a real Laravel application, all locally.

Package Setup

I am going to walk you through creating a quick Composer package from scratch and adding a service provider. I know a couple of package developers that use a boilerplate repository as a starting point for PHP and Laravel packages (see Spatie’s PHP Skeleton for inspiration).

First, let’s create an example composer project and hook up a Laravel service provider. I like to start my code from ~/code so update to whatever you use:

cd ~/code
mkdir example-pkg
cd example-pkg/
mkdir src/
composer init
# Walk through the prompts to init...

After you generate the composer.json file, let’s add a few things for autoloading and automatic service providers:

{
"name": "paul/example-package",
"authors": [
{
"name": "Paul Redmond",
"email": "paul@example.com"
}
],
"autoload": {
"psr-4": {
"ExamplePackage\\": "src/"
}
},
"require": {},
"extra": {
"laravel": {
"providers": [
"ExamplePackage\\ExamplePackageServiceProvider"
]
}
}
}

Last, let’s create a skeleton service provider:

<?php
 
namespace ExamplePackage;
 
use Illuminate\Support\ServiceProvider;
 
class ExamplePackageServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
{
public function boot()
{
# code...
}
 
public function register()
{
# code...
}
}

Linking Your Package to a Laravel Project

Now that we have a local composer project that we can use to start developing a new Laravel package, let’s create a demo Laravel app to link our example package up using a local file path:

cd ~/code
laravel new laravel-demo
cd laravel-demo

I encourage you to check out Caleb Portzio’s bash alias, but here’s the static command you would need to link up your local repository:

composer config repositories.local '{"type": "path", "url": "../example-pkg"}' --file composer.json

Next, we need to run composer require to add the local repository as a dependency. Remember to use the "name" key you defined in the example-package composer file:

composer require paul/example-package
 
Using version dev-master for paul/example-package
./composer.json has been updated
Loading composer repositories with package information
Updating dependencies (including require-dev)
Nothing to install or update
Generating optimized autoload files
> Illuminate\Foundation\ComposerScripts::postAutoloadDump
> @php artisan package:discover
Discovered Package: fideloper/proxy
Discovered Package: laravel/tinker
Discovered Package: nunomaduro/collision
Discovered Package: paul/example-package
Package manifest generated successfully.

You can see that our package was discovered through the "extra" key in the composer.json file, sweet!

If you check the filesystem, you’ll notice that the package is symlinked, which means you can continue to develop on the package locally and immediately try it out in a demo project:

cd ~/code/laravel-demo
ls -la vendor/paul
total 0
.
..
example-package -> ../../../example-pkg

Now you have an excellent way to develop Laravel packages locally alongside a Laravel application! Thank you Caleb for the fantastic alias!

Paul Redmond photo

Staff writer at Laravel News. Full stack web developer and author.

Cube

Laravel Newsletter

Join 40k+ other developers and never miss out on new tips, tutorials, and more.

image
Mastering Laravel

Join the Mastering Laravel community to level up your skills and get trusted advice.

Visit Mastering Laravel
Curotec logo

Curotec

World class Laravel experts with GenAI dev skills. LATAM-based, embedded engineers that ship fast, communicate clearly, and elevate your product. No bloat, no BS.

Curotec
Bacancy logo

Bacancy

Supercharge your project with a seasoned Laravel developer with 4-6 years of experience for just $2500/month. Get 160 hours of dedicated expertise & a risk-free 15-day trial. Schedule a call now!

Bacancy
Laravel Forge logo

Laravel Forge

Easily create and manage your servers and deploy your Laravel applications in seconds.

Laravel Forge
Tinkerwell logo

Tinkerwell

The must-have code runner for Laravel developers. Tinker with AI, autocompletion and instant feedback on local and production environments.

Tinkerwell
Cut PHP Code Review Time & Bugs into Half with CodeRabbit logo

Cut PHP Code Review Time & Bugs into Half with CodeRabbit

CodeRabbit is an AI-powered code review tool that specializes in PHP and Laravel, running PHPStan and offering automated PR analysis, security checks, and custom review features while remaining free for open-source projects.

Cut PHP Code Review Time & Bugs into Half with CodeRabbit
Join the Mastering Laravel community logo

Join the Mastering Laravel community

Connect with experienced developers in a friendly, noise-free environment. Get insights, share ideas, and find support for your coding challenges. Join us today and elevate your Laravel skills!

Join the Mastering Laravel community
Kirschbaum logo

Kirschbaum

Providing innovation and stability to ensure your web application succeeds.

Kirschbaum
Shift logo

Shift

Running an old Laravel version? Instant, automated Laravel upgrades and code modernization to keep your applications fresh.

Shift
Lucky Media logo

Lucky Media

Get Lucky Now - the ideal choice for Laravel Development, with over a decade of experience!

Lucky Media
Lunar: Laravel E-Commerce logo

Lunar: Laravel E-Commerce

E-Commerce for Laravel. An open-source package that brings the power of modern headless e-commerce functionality to Laravel.

Lunar: Laravel E-Commerce
LaraJobs logo

LaraJobs

The official Laravel job board

LaraJobs
SaaSykit: Laravel SaaS Starter Kit logo

SaaSykit: Laravel SaaS Starter Kit

SaaSykit is a Multi-tenant Laravel SaaS Starter Kit that comes with all features required to run a modern SaaS. Payments, Beautiful Checkout, Admin Panel, User dashboard, Auth, Ready Components, Stats, Blog, Docs and more.

SaaSykit: Laravel SaaS Starter Kit

The latest

View all →
Chargebee Starter Kit for Billing in Laravel image

Chargebee Starter Kit for Billing in Laravel

Read article
Streamline Pipeline Cleanup with Laravel's finally Method image

Streamline Pipeline Cleanup with Laravel's finally Method

Read article
Validate Controller Requests with the Laravel Data Package image

Validate Controller Requests with the Laravel Data Package

Read article
Transform JSON into Typed Collections with Laravel's AsCollection::of() image

Transform JSON into Typed Collections with Laravel's AsCollection::of()

Read article
Auto-translate Application Strings with Laratext image

Auto-translate Application Strings with Laratext

Read article