Laravel dependencies fully explained.

posted 5 years ago

Hello,

I've been using the framework for a while now and after reading the docs and using it for a project I still never completely 100% understood how the dependencies system works with Laravel.

I have some questions, I'd be really grateful if someone can kindly address me:

From what i understood, Laravel mainly depends on Composer for its core dependencies, with the core packages liste in compose.json such as:

    "require": {
        "php": "^7.1.3",
        "fideloper/proxy": "^4.0",
        "laravel/framework": "5.8.*",
        "laravel/tinker": "^1.0"
    },
    "require-dev": {
        "beyondcode/laravel-dump-server": "^1.0",
        "filp/whoops": "^2.0",
        "fzaninotto/faker": "^1.4",
        "mockery/mockery": "^1.0",
        "nunomaduro/collision": "^3.0",
        "phpunit/phpunit": "^7.5"
    },

I recently had to upgrade the Laravel version and understanding what and why needed to update was a pain, is there some good written guide on what are the dependencies and how they are used? I'd love to break less things, when updating in the future.

I also have node dependencies which I can't understand why, or where those are used, or how, specifically, this dependencies are being used by the framework:

    "devDependencies": {
        "axios": "^0.18",
        "bootstrap": "^4.0.0",
        "popper.js": "^1.12",
        "cross-env": "^5.1",
        "jquery": "^3.2",
        "laravel-mix": "^2.0",
        "lodash": "^4.17.4"
    },
    "dependencies": {
        "npm": "^6.1.0"
    }

My questions is: why are there both NodeJS and Composer dependencies? Why's that? And how are they used, or better - why are they important?

Another big question for me is: there's a vendor folder in the root folder of my project where composer stores all the files, but there's also a vendor folder inside the "public" folder of my Laravel project! How am I supposed to handle this? How am I supposed to move my files there so can I actually use them? I installed the bootstrap-datepicker package and had to manually copy the css and js file inside the public/vendor folder.. this is kinda useless, am I missing something?

Thanks in advance, and sorry for the extremely noob questions and my bad english!

Last updated 2 years ago.

fieel

replied 5 years ago

I also learnt how to use webpack to compile, minimize etc. my js and css files in a pure react-js application, would love to learn to do the same with Laravel.

    "scripts": {
        "dev": "npm run development",
        "development": "cross-env NODE_ENV=development node_modules/webpack/bin/webpack.js --progress --hide-modules --config=node_modules/laravel-mix/setup/webpack.config.js",
        "watch": "npm run development -- --watch",
        "watch-poll": "npm run watch -- --watch-poll",
        "hot": "cross-env NODE_ENV=development node_modules/webpack-dev-server/bin/webpack-dev-server.js --inline --hot --config=node_modules/laravel-mix/setup/webpack.config.js",
        "prod": "npm run production",
        "production": "cross-env NODE_ENV=production node_modules/webpack/bin/webpack.js --no-progress --hide-modules --config=node_modules/laravel-mix/setup/webpack.config.js"
    },

What's the best way and workflow to use these commands?

buonzz

replied 5 years ago

why are there both NodeJS and Composer dependencies?

It is because Laravel is a solution for both Frontend (css/js) and backend (php) NodeJS - is for managing your frontend dependencies (css/js) Composer - is for managing your backend dependencies

I also have node dependencies which I can't understand why, or where those are used

it is meant for local development environment when developing your UI, most of the cool kids nowadays uses ReactJS, Vue, Angular etc. instead of Blade Templates. And to use those you need those dependencies in order to transpile, minify, bundle etc, look at https://laravel.com/docs/5.8/mix for more info on the workflow

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