Magento 2 Modules – Where Do Third Party Modules Go?

magento2module

I just installed the first official release of Magento 2. I was surprised to find that the app/code folder was gone

app/code

This was for both the version downloaded from the website and the version installed via composer. Also, when I tried to manually create the app/code folder, and then do a php bin/magento module:enable Pulsestorm_MyModule to enable a sample module, I got the following error

 Unknown module(s): 'Pulsestorm_MyModule'

Where are third party modules supposed to live? If the answer is "a source repository and installed via composer", how does a module developer need to structure their modules to live in a Magento 2 repository?

Best Answer

Preferably 3PLs will live in the vendor directory along with everything else. However… :) We all know there is typically custom code written for almost every custom site-build out there, and this IMO belongs in app/code/ still. Yes, you can still run a module from app/code.

All modules, regardless of location, should have a composer.json and a registration.php file which are used to get the module into the system. You also need the etc/modules.xml file. This is, technically, all it takes to register a module:

$ tree app/code/Alger/
app/code/Alger/
└── Skeleton
    ├── composer.json
    ├── etc
    │   └── module.xml
    └── registration.php

2 directories, 3 files

To get the module up and running, you need to run setup:upgrade and then cache:flush for the system to both recognize and load your new component:

$ bin/magento module:enable Foo_Bar
$ bin/magento setup:upgrade -q && bin/magento cache:flush -q

Update: Two methods to install module from public GitHub repo: https://gist.github.com/davidalger/77761f13d9752b117f35

Related Solutions

Magento – What are the best practices for installing third party extensions in Magento 2

Install module via composer is the best way to Magento 2. Becuase there are many advantages if we install module via composer.
If you want to upgrade module you just need to change the version in composer.json file and run composer update command at the rootMagentoento.
While in manual installation you need to first download module and replace old files and run setup:upgrade command to upgrade module.
All modules which are installed via composer are downloaded in vendor folder.
Magento uses default https://repo.magento.com/ URL to download module If you purchase module from Magento Marketplace.
If you purchase module from third-party website. You need to add a repository in composer.json to download and install a module.

For Example

"repositories": {
    "0": {
        "type": "composer",
        "url": "https://repo.magento.com/" //Default Magento Repositry
    },
    "thirdparty-module": {
        "type": "composer",
        "url": "https://mymodule.thirdparty.com/" //Third Party Repositary
    }
},

In my opinion composer is the best and proper way to install module in Magento 2.

Install Third Party Module Via composer:

Run this command to add new repository in conposer.json

composer config repositories.thirdparty-module git https://thirdparty-composer-url.com

Now run this command to add component and version of module in composer.json

composer require [component-name]:[version]

Forex.  composer require prince/helloword:1.0.0

Now run composer update to download module from repository.

composer update

Now run setup:upgrade to install and register module in config.php

php bin/magento setup:upgrade

Install Dependencies for Manually Installed Modules – Magento 2 Guide

If not, is the best approach here to simply copy & paste any dependencies into the main project composer.json? That's pretty inelegant.

Yes, given that the extension is manually copied to app/code, this is the best approach, and yes, this is pretty inelegant.

The real best solution is to not copy the extension manually. It already has a composer.json file, so you can install it with composer. Set up a private repository (for example at Bitbucket or on the local filesystem outside of the Magento root), specify it in repositories of your composer.json and then require the module as any other composer module.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Magento – What are the best practices for installing third party extensions in Magento 2

Install Dependencies for Manually Installed Modules – Magento 2 Guide

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