Have osTicket use Composer Dependency Manager

[ghost]

All major PHP software uses composer to manage dependencies and the installation and updating of PHP software.

I have 39 software packages installed on server ranging from major packages like Symfony to PhpMyAdmin, all of which support and use composer. osTicket is now the only package that I have to resort to updating the old fashioned way, by downloading the new version, unpacking it, etc...

This is a feature request to have osTicket to begin using composer. Not only will this make it easier to install and update it, it will also ensure dependencies are kept up to date, not duplicated, and meet specific version requirements. I see no downsides to doing this and only benefits.

[greezybacon]

I don't disagree that we should use composer. Turns out though, that we have virtually no dependencies. That's probably why we haven't implemented Composer yet.

[ntozier]

Jared, I cannot help but notice that you said "virtually". ;) There are a few but they are determined by how people have osT configured. (php5-imap, php5-mysql, and deprecated mcrypt? spring to mind)

[ghost]

The osTicket Readme says it uses the following packages:

Composer Support Yes   No

•  Font-Awesome
•  HTMLawed
•  jQuery dropdown
•  mPDF
•  PasswordHash _(if replaced with recommended passwordcompat)
•  PEAR
•  PEAR/Auth_SASL
•  PEAR/Mail
•  PEAR/Net_SMTP
•  PEAR/Net_Socket
•  PEAR/Serivces_JSON
•  phpseclib
•  Spyc

Even if they don't have support at the moment, at least the ones that do can be added to the composer.json file and the rest added if and when they do.

PasswordHash, should be replaced with password_compat, which is made by the same PHP developer who made the password_hash() function which is available in PHP 5.5+, it's the recommended compatibility library to use.

@ntozier composer allows you to specify platform packages, so osTicket's composer file can be set to require a specific package like say password_compat if user is not using PHP 5.5+ and same goes with PHP extensions.