Question

I’m on Symfony 2.0 and understood that third-party libraries go in /vendor. I have two third party classes I’m using, one is TCPDF and another is a Paypal class. Neither have formal Symfony2 Bundles.

So I followed the instructions here which namespaces them and makes them usable inside /vendor:

Add third party libraries to Symfony 2

This works and I can access them from my Controllers. However I’m rethinking if that’s the right thing. Whenever I do..

php bin/vendors install --reinstall

..those custom classes disappear because they don’t have a Git repo in ‘deps’. This has caused real problems e.g. when trying to deploy on e.g. PagodaBox. I get the strong instinct that this code while ‘third-party’ belongs closer to the code of my app.

If that’s true, should it:

• Sit next to my Controllers in src/MyCompany/MyBundle/Controller/tcpdf.php
• Be with my other custom-written services in src/MyCompany/MyBundle/DependencyInjection/tcpdf.php
• Go in its own directory under my bundle: src/MyCompany/MyBundle/TCPDF/tcpdf.php

If I move these two classes from /vendor to one of the above, would I access it from a Controller with a ‘use’ statement, or would I need to define it in ‘services.yml’?

I hope this isn’t so much a matter of discussion or opinion but some guidance I’ve missed or best practise I’m unaware of that a more experienced Symfony2 dev would know.

Would it be sensible to switch to Composer even before Symfony 2.1 is ready?

Thanks for reading.

Answer 1

If you’re using deps to manage vendor libraries then you should add the git repo’s for those libraries there.

For TCPDF you can use:

[TCPDF]
    git=git://tcpdf.git.sourceforge.net/gitroot/tcpdf/tcpdf
    target=/tcpdf

If you have other libraries that aren’t in a public repo then you may want to commit them to your own repo.

The same would hold true for Composer. Just the syntax for adding non-packagist repo’s is different.