Install OXID eShop compilation on servers, where Composer is not available

We strongly recommend to install OXID eShop via Composer on the application server! But if Composer is not available for example on a “shared hosting” web space or in a high-security environment, it is still possible to install or deploy OXID eShop. This solution requires more effort and also some knowledge about Composer, as you have to run the Composer commands on one machine and then copy the files over to the application server.

The process is roughly:

Set up a local environment

As a first step set up a local environment. For the sake of simplicity we call this environment local, but it can also be a remote machine, a docker container, a virtual machine or any other installation where you have sufficient access rights to install and run executable files.

This local environment should be as similar as possible to the server, where OXID eShop should finally be installed or deployed. Especially the PHP stack and the required system libraries should be identical to the stack of the application server. Keep in mind that even differences in patch versions may matter. So it is really important to keep the local environment and the application server in sync in order be able to copy files from one system to another. Failing to do so may lead to errors that might hard to detect during the runtime of OXID eShop.

Make sure to have a working Composer installation on this local environment. You will find details how to install and use Composer here. Please make also sure you have a sufficient understanding of how Composer works before proceeding.

Deploy the source code and install project dependencies in the local environment

On your local environment, follow the installation instructions, section Providing shop files. After this step has been completed without errors, you will find a new directory in your current directory. This new directory is called your_project_name in the example, but you may have chosen a different name. In this documentation we will call this directory project root directory.

Prepare the generated files for deployment on the remote server (UNIX-based only)

Users of Windows servers can skip this step, as Composer does not create symbolic links on Windows based systems.

On UNIX based systems, Composers creates symbolic links in the directory project root directory/vendor/bin/, which cannot be just copied to a remote system like plain files.

There are at least two possible solutions to overcome this issue:

1. Consider archiving the files using the tar-command on your local machine:

# create tar archive in the local environment
tar -cvzf oxid-eshop.tar.gz <project root directory>

If you have shell access to the remote server you can use this command to extract the tar archive, and also the symbolic links will be extracted:

# extract tar archive on the application server
tar -xvzf oxid-eshop.tar.gz

2. In case you have no shell access on the remote server, you have to delete the symbolic links and to manually create alternative files on your local machine, which have to be copied to the application server. Please note that this will only work from a UNIX based system as your local development environment.

cd <project root directory>

rm vendor/bin/*

cat << 'EOF' >> vendor/bin/oe-eshop-db_views_generate
#!/usr/bin/env sh

dir=$(d=${0%[/\\]*}; cd "$d" > /dev/null; cd "../oxid-esales/oxideshop-db-views-generator" && pwd)

dir=$(echo $dir | sed 's/ /\ /g')
"${dir}/oe-eshop-db_views_generate" "$@"
EOF

cat << 'EOF' >> vendor/bin/oe-eshop-demodata_install
#!/usr/bin/env sh

dir=$(d=${0%[/\\]*}; cd "$d" > /dev/null; cd "../oxid-esales/oxideshop-demodata-installer/bin" && pwd)

dir=$(echo $dir | sed 's/ /\ /g')
"${dir}/oe-eshop-demodata_install" "$@"
EOF

cat << 'EOF' >> vendor/bin/oe-eshop-doctrine_migration
#!/usr/bin/env sh

dir=$(d=${0%[/\\]*}; cd "$d" > /dev/null; cd "../oxid-esales/oxideshop-doctrine-migration-wrapper/bin" && pwd)

dir=$(echo $dir | sed 's/ /\ /g')
"${dir}/oe-eshop-doctrine_migration" "$@"
EOF

Copy the files to the application server and continue installation

Copy the project root directory to your application server and set all files in the vendor/bin directory to be executable. Then finish the installation on the application server starting with Step 2 of the standard installation instructions.

Managing modules and module dependencies

Some OXID eShop modules are installable via Composer or may require some 3rd party components (e.g. monolog/monolog) to be installed via Composer.

To install these modules or their dependencies, follow the same strategy: Install them in a local environment following the installation instructions of the module and then copy the newly installed files to the application server.

All files, which are managed by Composer live inside a subdirectory of project root directory called vendor. The contents of this directory and all its subdirectories may completely change with every execution of composer require or composer update, so it is a best practice to always completely replace this directory on the server.

Continue the installation procedure (copy modules files, configure module, etc.) on the application server.