Laravel and PHP extensions

You use them the same way you would in a non framework php application.

That is exactly what the framework uses pure PHP just have a look in the API or the vendor folder. it's straight PHP doing the shortcuts in the background for you.

I've been experimenting and using this line from the terminal works when using php test.php (a test script I made).

  $foo = new \Foo(); //From a PHP extension

However, using the exact same line in Laravel gives an "Class not found" error. What do I need to do in order to make Laravel able to find the class?

Some classes that appears when you type php -m in console are not the same name you have to instantiate in code.

For example, if i see here what PHP extensions i have when type php -m , i have one that is named zip, but if i try to instantiate zip like $zip = new \Zip() it says class not found, instead, the correct way is $zip = new \ZipArchive() . So, give a try with this class (zip) and tell me what you get.

Is the extension in a directoryr that is in your composer.json file and have you done a composer dump?

Interesting! The Zip class worked for me though. Seems like a traditional reboot solved it somehow. The class can now be found using new \Foo().

Using MacOs I had restarted PHP, Nginx, dnsmasq using brew services restart --all, but it still didn't work

It is a PHP extension installed on my MacOS outside the Laravel project