Multiple apps / projects with one Laravel 4 installation - php

i'm have worked with laravel 3 in the past and used a project structure where multiple apps could use one installation of the framework. now in laravel 4 i am concered if that is still possible. since the bootstrap/autoload.php file requires the vendor/autoload.php file (and so on...), different apps have to use the same autoload files from within the vendor directory, right? i think this would be a big performance problem because the different apps maybe have different requirements, different models to work with and so on. am i thinking right or is there a chance to use one /vendor/ installation for multiple apps without the need to share the autoload files?
to explain my needs: i would like to run different apps (every app with another domain & home directory) which share one database and some models. but the requirements of every app will be very different.
is there any solution? i tried this since the release but found no practicable way.

Have you tried http://laravel.com/docs/routing#sub-domain-routing?
You could create a route group and assign a filter function to that route group to do specific autoloads?

How about modifying bootstrap/autoload.php and vendor/autoload.php to load autoload stuff per project to some kind of sub-directory structure under vendor/composer/.
Not sure, how to change composer to generate that kind of project specific autoload directories. Maybe it needs changing composer?

Related

Centralize vendor folder in Laravel 4.1.x

I wonder if is possibile to "move" the vendor folder to another location. I mean, I've a structure like this
/
Laravel Project 1
Laravel Project 2
Laravel Project 3
[... others ...]
CDN (For vendor if I can)
Well as you know every project comes with the vendor/ folder. I want to move that folder inside the CDN and "merge" all the requirements for every project in another composer outside the projects folder (inside CDN i guess).
Why this?
Simply because I've notice that vendors folder are nearly the same for every project so if I can combine all the "differences" in one single big vendor folder I can manage all the dependencies in one single location, pretty cool
Is that possible?
TY for any help :) Have a nice day.
In Laravel you can change the folder your applications load the framework and dependencies from bootstrap/autoload.php.
There's a require __DIR__.'/../vendor/autoload.php'; line in it and you can change it to whatever you need.
Thus you can change it to some outside folder, common to all projects.

Git repo inside another repo

I have directory structure which looks like that
Framework folder is from https://github.com/yiisoft/yii
For now, I'm updating framework folder like that.
Created another folder for Yii framework. Pulling every update and then duplicating framework directory into framework folder.
I want to automate this routine work. Is there anyway to update this framework folder from https://github.com/yiisoft/yii with commands like
cd framework
git pull
It might be wrong of course, but I'm newbie to git.
Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance
I think you should use Git Submodules:
It often happens that while working on one project, you need to use another project from within it. Perhaps it’s a library that a third party developed or that you’re developing separately and using in multiple parent projects. A common issue arises in these scenarios: you want to be able to treat the two projects as separate yet still be able to use one from within the other.
...
Git addresses this issue using submodules.
Here's a wiki explaining how to manage it in Yii

sharing libraries across web projects

I have 3 PHP projects using the CodeIgniter framework which share some exact same files such as models libraries and controllers. What's the best way I could share these files across without having to keep in sync and update the same files across?
In linux I thought of using dynamic links and extract these files to a central place but that kind of breaks our version control and would create portability issues.
Another way perhaps to use unison on these files across projects
I'm assuming that's a common problem, what are common approaches?
Separate them into a module, and use something like composer.
http://getcomposer.org/
Or just put them in a separate SCM.
One thing you can do:
Put all the shared code in libraries, helpers and models and place this in a separate folder. Then use:
$this->load->add_package_path('shared location');
Also take a look here: http://codeigniter.com/user_guide/libraries/loader.html , under application packages.
This works for most of the stuff, except controllers.
Use version control! In svn you can use externals, git has submodules or subtrees.
You don't want to use hardlinks, you'll run into weird issues like updating one project influences another project ("that I haven't touched in weeks").
The code can be in two physical places but shared under version control. There will always be only one authorative copy, namely the one in your version system. All physical copies are derivatives. It's important to see that you have control over when you update the code of a specific project, so a change at one point doesn't immediately break another project in case you made a mistake.
If you do want to catch these kinds of errors, set up a proper regression testing environment.
Sharing a development environment with another developer is also a big no. You don't want to have to wait till your colleague fixes a parse error that breaks the entire program. Each developer should have their own copy (checkout!) of a project and similarly each project should have their own copy (externaled) of shared code.
Seperate them into folders outside your project, then configure or include them in your projects.
Usually we will rewrite "autoloader" method for the project to find files in our new folders.

Publishing assets from modules in Zend Framework 2

It is generally adviced to store module assets inside the module's directory, inside moduleName/public (or whatever you want to name the asset's directory).
Zend Framework 2 unfortunately doesn't support asset publishing for module assets by default. According to MWOP, there was nothing planned ~1 month ago and I guess there still is no real plan (they had probably a lot of work to get the stable version ready). (But, some day, they are going to address this issue.)
As my ZF2 app is growing and growing, I reached the point where I need to have module-specific assets. At the moment, I maintain them inside the module directories and copy them to the application's public directory. You can imagine that this method is error-prone and exhausting.
How do you handle this problem? Is there maybe a simple solution to this issue with little coding effort? My project plan doesn't allow me to create a complex asset handling on my own. Is there a recommendable, lightweight asset framework compatible to ZF2? I've already considered creating symlinks but I don't think this would be the best solution because it would require some additional web server configuration (FollowSymlinks) and additional maintenance work (the app is developed locally and deployed on a remote server).
Thanks in advance.
This has been discussed before in many places and it comes down to three ways to manage this.
Copy and Paste the assets into the public/ directory
Use symlinks
Use an asset loading module like assetic
A simple solution would be to make the copying of assets part of you build process.
Another question was already asked How to merge Zend Framework 2 module public directories for info.
I know this is pretty old, but I wanted to add this information for other readers.
Now there's also a module for this, which has been fully tested and is being used (and even depended on) by many modules.
Check it out here: https://github.com/RWOverdijk/AssetManager
Hope this helps.
There is also fourth option. Use a directory Alias in VirtualHost configuration.

Codeigniter Shared Resources - Opinions Wanted

I run multiple websites all running off of a single installation of CodeIgniter on my server (separate application directories and a single system directory). This has been working fabulously and I don't see any reason to change it at this point.
I find myself writing library classes to extend/override CI all of the time and many times if I find a bug or improve effeciency I have to go back to several websites to make the same adjustments at risk of a typo that breaks one of the websites. Because of this it requires that I change each file and then test that site for bugs.
I have been pondering a solution of using a single libraries directory in a central location and symlinking all of my websites to that central directory. Then when I make a file change it will immediately propagate to all of the downstream websites. It will still require that I test each one for errors, but I won't have to make the changes multiple times. Anything that is specific to a single website will either be a non-shared file (still in the linked directory just not used elsewhere) or can be put in a local helper.
Also, I keep separate 'system' directories by CI version so I can migrate my websites independently if necessary--this central libraries file would be attached to a specific version to reduce possible breaks.
Does anyone see potential issues or pitfalls from taking this approach? Has anyone accomplished this in another direction that I should consider?
Thanks in advance!
I think this actually makes sense :] Go for it. Even on official CodeIgniter page, they mention it's possible.
Also, I don't see one reason why there should be any problem.
Edit: they touch the problem of multiple sites here: http://codeigniter.com/user_guide/general/managing_apps.html
also:
http://codeigniter.com/wiki/Multiple_Applications/
http://www.exclusivetutorials.com/setting-multiple-websites-in-codeigniter-installation/
How to Handle Multiple Projects in CodeIgniter?
http://codeigniter.com/forums/viewthread/56436/
I have a single system directory and separate application directories for my CI apps. In order to share libraries and some view templates between my apps, I have created a "Common" directory, in the same folder as the CI system and with the same structure as a regular app folder and used symlinks, but you can modify the Loader class so that it looks in the Common folder too. My setup looks something like this:
/var/CodeIgniter/
/var/Common/
/var/Common/config/
/var/Common/controllers/
...
/var/Common/libraries/
...
/var/www/someapp/
/var/www/someotherapp/
...
I'm not sure how you handle publishing your sites (assuming you actually do any of that), but I'd look into version control. For example, in SVN you can make external to another svn directory (or file) and then just update the current svn directory which grabs the external file. This approach gains one benefit from the others, which is when you modify the common library, the others aren't immediately affected. This prevents unwanted breaks before you have time to go test all the sites using the common library. You can then just update each site's folder whenever you are ready to test the changes. This is "more work", but it prevents code duplication AND unwanted breaks.
I wrote a MY_Loader to do exactly that.
http://ellislab.com/forums/viewthread/136321/

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