How To Configure and Use Flex Private Recipe Repositories

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Since the release of version 1.16 of symfony/flex, you can build your own private Symfony Flex recipe repositories, and seamlessly integrate them into the composer package installation and maintenance process.

This is particularly useful when you have private bundles or packages that must perform their own installation tasks. To do this, you need to complete several steps:

  • Create a private repository;
  • Create your private recipes;
  • Create an index to the recipes;
  • Store your recipes in the private repository;
  • Grant composer access to the private repository;
  • Configure your project's composer.json file; and
  • Install the recipes in your project.

Create a Private Repository

GitHub

Log in to your GitHub.com account, click your account icon in the top-right corner, and select Your Repositories. Then click the New button, fill in the repository name, select the Private radio button, and click the Create Repository button.

Gitlab

Log in to your Gitlab.com account, click the New project button, select Create blank project, fill in the Project name, select the Private radio button, and click the Create project button.

Create Your Private Recipes

A symfony/flex recipe is a JSON file that has the following structure:

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{
    "manifests": {
        "acme/package-name": {
            "manifest": {
            },
            "ref": "7405f3af1312d1f9121afed4dddef636c6c7ff00"
        }
    }
}

If your package is a private Symfony bundle, you will have the following in the recipe:

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{
    "manifests": {
        "acme/private-bundle": {
            "manifest": {
                "bundles": {
                    "Acme\\PrivateBundle\\AcmePrivateBundle": [
                        "all"
                    ]
                }
            },
            "ref": "7405f3af1312d1f9121afed4dddef636c6c7ff00"
        }
    }
}

Replace acme and private-bundle with your own private bundle details. The "ref" entry is a random 40-character string used by composer to determine if your recipe was modified. Every time that you make changes to your recipe, you also need to generate a new "ref" value.

Tip

Use the following PHP script to generate a random "ref" value:

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echo bin2hex(random_bytes(20));

The "all" entry tells symfony/flex to create an entry in your project's bundles.php file for all environments. To load your bundle only for the dev environment, replace "all" with "dev".

The name of your recipe JSON file must conform to the following convention, where 1.0 is the version number of your bundle (replace acme and private-bundle with your own private bundle or package details):

acme.private-bundle.1.0.json

You will probably also want symfony/flex to create configuration files for your bundle or package in the project's /config/packages directory. To do that, change the recipe JSON file as follows:

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{
    "manifests": {
        "acme/private-bundle": {
            "manifest": {
                "bundles": {
                    "Acme\\PrivateBundle\\AcmePrivateBundle": [
                        "all"
                    ]
                },
                "copy-from-recipe": {
                    "config/": "%CONFIG_DIR%"
                }
            },
            "files": {
                "config/packages/acme_private.yaml": {
                    "contents": [
                        "acme_private:",
                        "    encode: true",
                        ""
                    ],
                    "executable": false
                }
            },
            "ref": "7405f3af1312d1f9121afed4dddef636c6c7ff00"
        }
    }
}

For more examples of what you can include in a recipe file, browse the Symfony recipe files.

Create an Index to the Recipes

The next step is to create an index.json file, which will contain entries for all your private recipes, and other general configuration information.

GitHub

The index.json file has the following format:

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{
    "recipes": {
        "acme/private-bundle": [
            "1.0"
        ]
    },
    "branch": "main",
    "is_contrib": true,
    "_links": {
        "repository": "github.com/your-github-account-name/your-recipes-repository",
        "origin_template": "{package}:{version}@github.com/your-github-account-name/your-recipes-repository:main",
        "recipe_template": "https://api.github.com/repos/your-github-account-name/your-recipes-repository/contents/{package_dotted}.{version}.json"
    }
}

Create an entry in "recipes" for each of your bundle recipes. Replace your-github-account-name and your-recipes-repository with your own details.

Gitlab

The index.json file has the following format:

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{
    "recipes": {
        "acme/private-bundle": [
            "1.0"
        ]
    },
    "branch": "main",
    "is_contrib": true,
    "_links": {
        "repository": "gitlab.com/your-gitlab-account-name/your-recipes-repository",
        "origin_template": "{package}:{version}@gitlab.com/your-gitlab-account-name/your-recipes-repository:main",
        "recipe_template": "https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/your-gitlab-project-id/repository/files/{package_dotted}.{version}.json/raw?ref=main"
    }
}

Create an entry in "recipes" for each of your bundle recipes. Replace your-gitlab-account-name, your-gitlab-repository and your-gitlab-project-id with your own details.

Store Your Recipes in the Private Repository

Upload the recipe .json file(s) and the index.json file into the root directory of your private repository.

Grant composer Access to the Private Repository

GitHub

In your GitHub account, click your account icon in the top-right corner, select Settings and Developer Settings. Then select Personal Access Tokens.

Generate a new access token with Full control of private repositories privileges. Copy the access token value, switch to the terminal of your local computer, and execute the following command:

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$ composer config --global --auth github-oauth.github.com [token]

Replace [token] with the value of your GitHub personal access token.

Gitlab

In your Gitlab account, click your account icon in the top-right corner, select Preferences and Access Tokens.

Generate a new personal access token with read_api and read_repository scopes. Copy the access token value, switch to the terminal of your local computer, and execute the following command:

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$ composer config --global --auth gitlab-token.gitlab.com [token]

Replace [token] with the value of your Gitlab personal access token.

Configure Your Project's composer.json File

GitHub

Add the following to your project's composer.json file:

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{
    "extra": {
        "symfony": {
            "endpoint": [
                "https://api.github.com/repos/your-github-account-name/your-recipes-repository/contents/index.json",
                "flex://defaults"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Replace your-github-account-name and your-recipes-repository with your own details.

Tip

The extra.symfony key will most probably already exist in your composer.json. In that case, add the "endpoint" key to the existing extra.symfony entry.

Tip

The endpoint URL must point to https://api.github.com/repos and not to https://www.github.com.

Gitlab

Add the following to your project's composer.json file:

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{
    "extra": {
        "symfony": {
            "endpoint": [
                "https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/your-gitlab-project-id/repository/files/index.json/raw?ref=main",
                "flex://defaults"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Replace your-gitlab-project-id with your own details.

Tip

The extra.symfony key will most probably already exist in your composer.json. In that case, add the "endpoint" key to the existing extra.symfony entry.

Install the Recipes in Your Project

If your private bundles/packages have not yet been installed in your project, run the following command:

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$ composer update

If the private bundles/packages have already been installed and you just want to install the new private recipes, run the following command:

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$ composer recipes
This work, including the code samples, is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 license.
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