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Gupta_Ganapatharaju's avatar

Installing Laravel wihout Composer

You can laugh all you want, but I have been an IBM mainframe programmer/analyst for 30 years, and have not had any opportunities to do any rocket science or brain surgery in all that time. You can roll around on the floor after I tell you that I have been trying to teach myself OOP, HTML, CSS, and PHP for years now, and I find nothing more tedious than to code with that package of crap.

It's hobby, and I come back to it every winter when I have nothing else to do, and a couple of years ago I discovered Codeigniter. Wow! What a wonderful framework when you don't know any better, and I still don't. But a while back, maybe a year ago or two years ago, I think it was Jamie Rumbelow but I can't be sure, started saying that Laravel is much better.

So here I am, wanting to give Laravel a try for the second time in as many years, but I have a problem. I want to install the thing by downloading some files, and copying them into the server. I have absolutely no desire to learn Composer. There is nothing that I find intuitive about it, it is a pain in the rectum, and it forces me to use the Windows command prompt, to which I am allergic. Yes, you heard right, I run WAMP on a Windows machine because that's what I do.

Has anyone written a version of Laravel that does not require Composer?

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17 replies
jlrdw's avatar

Really serious here composer is easy to use you can copy the line from the website paste it in the dos box and all is done one copy and paste is all you need to really know how to do. If you can't click copy and click paste yikes. Oh hitting the enter key will be required.

willvincent's avatar

No offense intended, but it seems to me your attitude toward things is the primary thing hindering your learning.

2 likes
lindstrom's avatar

In the time it took you to post, you could have installed and been up and running with Composer. By the time you've read these replies, you could be looking at the Laravel splash screen on a fresh install. It is that easy.

However, if you don't have the time, it's just a hobby, or you need to GSD, stick with Codeigniter. On the other hand, if you feel like putting a smidgen of effort into learning Laravel, give this series an honest run through: https://laracasts.com/series/laravel-5-from-scratch

When you get stuck on something, search these forums or post a question. Plenty of delightful folks here that would be happy to lend a hand.

Good luck!

mikevrind's avatar

You can learn how to use composer in like 5 minutes... If you really don't want to use composer, go back in time. Welcome to 2016.

But I understand your issue. The first time I ran into an "composer project" I also was like "what the F is this composer thing?". I didn't wanted to use it. But it didn't took long before I realized I really did need it to install Laravel. So I sat down to "learn" how to use it and I was done in just a few minutes.... it's really that simple.

Just read how to install composer on your system first https://getcomposer.org/doc/00-intro.md#installation-linux-unix-osx

https://getcomposer.org/doc/00-intro.md#installation-windows

Then download Laravel from https://github.com/laravel/laravel. Browse to the Laravel folder via CLI and just type "composer install" and watch the magic unfolds. Want to update your (Laravel) packages? "composer update".

Salomoni's avatar

Welcome to the Laravel community @Gupta_Ganapatharaju.

Has anyone written a version of Laravel that does not require Composer?

Laravel doesn't require Composer. It is just more convenient install all the PHP dependencies via Composer than manually.

You can find some pre-packed full Laravel installations on the internet, just Google it. They are however outdated, example LaraPack hasn't been updated since 20th of February 2015. Because you are just messing around with the framework I think it's good enough for you.

pmall's avatar

I have absolutely no desire to learn Composer.

It is the best thing that ever happened to php. You seem to disgust everything about web programming so why even try?

EmilMoe's avatar

Since you don't like OOP and all the features that are related to modern frameworks, I don't understand why you don't stick to old fashioned procedure PHP... But there must be a reason you actually came to this point ;-)

Gupta_Ganapatharaju's avatar

Thanks for the thorough besmirching guys, okay so I'm a bit frustrated. if you could just imagine my world... I came to work and wrote applications using COBOL, CICS, DB2/SQL, MQ Series, VSAM, etc... it was never my concern to install the infrastructure, heck you didn't even have to understand how they work. These were solid as a rock, never went down, and someone else installed them.

After thirty years of linear programming, you're asking me why I don't appreciate OOP? If I were to be seeking to win a popularity contest on this forum, then clearly that would be a problem. However, without OOP and "modern" frameworks I may never get another job. As you may have guessed, Gupta Ganapatharaju is not my real name, but my nom de geurre.

ookay, I'll give it another go. !$#!@$#@!$%!@#$

Gremlin's avatar

@Gupta_Ganapatharaju Thank you for your post and question. I have a similar background, and based on the community wishing to bash you for what you are attempting to do, I've decided to dump Laravel.

Based on Salomoni's response, even though Larval doesn't require composer the work, they have "prebuilt" installations which are are outdated by 9 years at this point and would still require composer for any updates.

And everyone agrees that you should use composer for Laravel, which tells me that Laravel is overly complex to maintain.

  • Gremlin
svenluijten's avatar

Laravel uses several components from Symfony (another big PHP framework). Sure, you could technically download those files from GitHub seperately and piece Laravel together like that (even though that won't work very well either, you'd need Composer's autoloading). But as others in this thread have mentioned, you really should give it a go! It's not as difficult or frustrating as you might think.

You also mentioned you didn't like the Windows command prompt. You could take a look at cmder and see what you think of that. Anyhow, good luck with your learning!

fetch404's avatar

It pretty much can not be done without a ton of pain. Laravel requires Composer in order for anything to work properly. Without Composer, it wouldn't be able to autoload the classes it needs, you wouldn't be able to use namespaces, and it would be really difficult to manage.

Just saying, I'd recommend sitting down for 10 minutes and trying to learn how to use Composer. Trying and not doing well is better than not trying at all.

jlrdw's avatar

@Gupta_Ganapatharaju I wouldn't worry so much about oop that is mainly for the programmer to separate things out, at Machine level the processor does everything procedurally. Technically there is no such thing as oop when it comes to processing. I came from java and I did not have to set up the Tomcat server the company did that us for so I know how you feel before that I started out in dbase 3. Most folks on this forum like to write quote unquote pretty code, doesn't mean it is good code, but at the end of the day if the code looks like a plate of spaghetti or pretty the bottom line does it work and is it secure. But good formatted code makes going back and changing much easier I try to document my code where needed. If you get it installed there are two tutorials built right into the docs and that will help you get started. Edit: and don't forget there are some free videos also. Plus YouTube has videos.

Gupta_Ganapatharaju's avatar

Fellas,

A decade ago, after years of fixing turds written by colleagues, I coined a phrase... "From simple minds come complex solutions to simple problems."

When it comes to explaining how to get something done, the same holds true. When a product such as Laravel is developed by developers who have spent their entire career working on a Unix box, or a MAC, they tend to look down their noses at Windows, and the entire Windows environment becomes an afterthought.

I was lucky enough to come across this tutorial. I recommend this tutorial: http://www.shohan.net/2015/11/09/installing-a-laravel-project-in-wamp-server

Now, I still don't know what git bash is, but I downloaded the laravel installer into: C:\Users{myusername}\AppData\Roaming\Composer\vendor\bin

And finally, I ran step 4 and it seems to be working. The URL in my browser http://localhost/project/public/ displays the Laravel 5 screen.

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Gupta_Ganapatharaju's avatar

Hey.

I didn't expect to become a pin cushion for every thin skinned Laravel developer. If you don't have something helpful to say, then please keep it to yourself. Perhaps I can contribute to this group by moderating the forum.

1 like
jaseofspades88's avatar

The irony of the time taken go through this thread, staunchly defend your desire not to learn how to install a framework whilst manscaping about what experience you do have, all in the time it's taking me to work on and deploy a Laravel site, which uses composer, I add.. is delicious

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