What is the process of adding a new composer plugin

[hellsbit]

I have been confused over the years as how best to add composer addons into zencart as they seem to appear in several locations.

I wanted to know what is the best way to do this within the new 2.0.0 framework.

I am trying to use Com\Tecnick\Barcode to generate barcodes

but I am asking this in a more general way to gain clarity.

[swguy]

Running

composer install

from the top of your cart hierarchy will create a vendor folder.

Then you can use

require DIR_FS_CATALOG . 'vendor/autoload.php';

in your Zen Cart code.

[hellsbit]

Wouldn't it be better to do this inside the laravel directory so that all the composer elements are together and managed together through one auto load.

Also what is the difference between the composer elements under laravel and the composer elements under includes/classes or is it just a historic thing?

[swguy]

> Wouldn't it be better to do this inside the laravel directory so that all the composer elements are together and managed together through one auto load.

You asked me how to do this, and I told you how I'm doing it. Please feel free to do whatever you want. For me, having it in a separate, new folder reminds me when I go to do the upgrade that I need to take care of these items as well.

> Also what is the difference between the composer elements under laravel and the composer elements under includes/classes or is it just a historic thing?

Historic thing. The laravel folder is new.

[DrByte]

I have been confused over the years as how best to add composer addons into zencart as they seem to appear in several locations.

I wanted to know what is the best way to do this within the new 2.0.0 framework.

I am trying to use Com\Tecnick\Barcode to generate barcodes

but I am asking this in a more general way to gain clarity.

Zen Cart does NOT directly manage or rely upon anything provided by Composer, as far as the core app goes.
The core /composer.json is more information "about" the package, and the only packages "required" there are for the sake of the test suite.
None of the core Zen Cart app uses anything mentioned in the /composer.json or composer's /vendor directory.

So, you have 3 options:
1. What Scott mentioned above. Which has its caveats.
2. Choose a package which has no other dependencies and unzip it into the /includes/classes/vendors directory, and "require" its autoloader in your application code.
3. Or put it in the /laravel/composer.json and run composer install to add it to your site. As long as the Laravel infrastructure has been loaded by the time you try to access the classes provided by that vendor, it should work.

You will of course have to upgrade all your Composer dependencies any time you upgrade your Zen Cart.