Do I need to install `fxp/composer-asset-plugin` if I'm not doing front-end development

Yii 2.0 General Discussions
1

In this section of the yii2 installation guide there’s the following instructions:

I’ve read about composer-asset-plugin here and seems that it’s used to manage front-end dependencies through composer. As I’m not developing for front-end, do I need to install this plugin anyway?

2

Are you developing only the console commands?

I mean, what exactly do you mean by "front-end"?

If you are going to develop a web application, you’ll need to install those dependencies even if you are not responsible for writing “front-end” scripts. The framework needs them for a web app.

3

Yes. We’re going to fix that in 2.1.

4

Thanks, guys, which part of the framework does need the dependencies in question? I’m only using the framework for the REST interface, and not using any View components.

5

Please look at these discussions on github.

6

Thanks. Here is the quote from the last linked discussion:

How do I find out the list of required bower package names?

7

The following is from @vendor/yiisoft/yii2/composer.json.




    ...

    "require": {

        "php": ">=5.4.0",

        "ext-mbstring": "*",

        "lib-pcre": "*",

        "yiisoft/yii2-composer": "*",

        "ezyang/htmlpurifier": "4.6.*",

        "cebe/markdown": "~1.0.0 | ~1.1.0",

        "bower-asset/jquery": "2.1.*@stable | 1.11.*@stable",

        "bower-asset/jquery.inputmask": "3.1.*",

        "bower-asset/punycode": "1.3.*",

        "bower-asset/yii2-pjax": ">=2.0.1"

    },

    ...

So, probably you can add the following in your @app/composer.json:




    ...

    "provide": {

        "ezyang/htmlpurifier": "4.6.*",

        "cebe/markdown": "~1.0.0 | ~1.1.0",

        "bower-asset/jquery": "2.1.*@stable | 1.11.*@stable",

        "bower-asset/jquery.inputmask": "3.1.*",

        "bower-asset/punycode": "1.3.*",

        "bower-asset/yii2-pjax": ">=2.0.1"

    },

    ...

I guess you may also exclude htmlpurifier and markdown as well as bower-asset/something, since REST api usually won’t need them.

8

Thanks a lot, I’ll add these to the project’s composer.json and test it.

9

If you have started with the basic or advanced project template, take additional care to check the “require” section of the project’s composer.json. I think you can delete some of them safely. For instance, “yiisoft/yii2-bootstrap” and “yiisoft/yii2-jui” are not necessary for your purpose, but will require some bower assets as their dependencies.

10

Thanks a lot, will do that