How do I install a package to a custom path for my framework?

Each framework may have one or many different required package installation paths. Composer can be configured to install packages to a folder other than the default vendor folder by using composer/installers.

If you are a package author and want your package installed to a custom directory, simply require composer/installers and set the appropriate type. This is common if your package is intended for a specific framework such as CakePHP, Drupal or WordPress. Here is an example composer.json file for a WordPress theme:

  1. {
  2.     "name": "you/themename",
  3.     "type": "wordpress-theme",
  4.     "require": {
  5.         "composer/installers": "~1.0"
  6.     }
  7. }

Now when your theme is installed with Composer it will be placed into wp-content/themes/themename/ folder. Check the current supported types for your package.

As a package consumer you can set or override the install path for a package that requires composer/installers by configuring the installer-paths extra. A useful example would be for a Drupal multisite setup where the package should be installed into your sites subdirectory. Here we are overriding the install path for a module that uses composer/installers:

  1. {
  2.     "extra": {
  3.         "installer-paths": {
  4.             "sites/example.com/modules/{$name}": ["vendor/package"]
  5.         }
  6.     }
  7. }

Now the package would be installed to your folder location, rather than the default composer/installers determined location.

Note: You cannot use this to change the path of any package. This is only applicable to packages that require composer/installers and use a custom type that it handles.