Composer download – what is needed to run the program

Composer is a package management system for software components in the PHP programming language.

The package manager creates application dependencies and provides tools for managing library builds. You can download the program on the company’s official website, and you can check its operation on the command line using a special command.

However, such simple actions may not lead to success, and instead of information about the software, the user will see error information. To troubleshoot the problem, you need to know that for the package manager to work correctly, two actions are required.

1 – Download two programs from official websites. Composer only works if you have and connect a PHP file on your computer. Below are the addresses of official sources where you can download both programs.

2 – Check in the “PATH Environment Variables” section. This is ideal if both programs have been installed completely. To check PHP, you need to enter a command on the command line that should show the version of the current program.

If this does not happen, then you need to check the “PATH Environment Variables”. Access to them may vary depending on the software and version. How to check if the setting is correct? This is accessible via the command line. Entering a special command will show whether two addresses leading to folders on the computer are present in the variables.

In what format should addresses be written? Let's say you downloaded a PHP archive. On the D:\ drive (or on any other drive), you need to create a folder with an arbitrary but clear name, for example, “php”. You need to unpack the archive into it, consisting of a list of folders and files. The archive folder can be deleted. The path to this folder will be the address.