How to Package and Deploy PHP Applications Using Composer and ZipArchive

Preparation

Before packaging, determine what to include (a full PHP project or a library) and create an appropriate directory structure.

Install Composer

Composer is the PHP dependency manager; install it using the following command:

curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php -- --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer

Managing Dependencies with Composer

Create a composer.json file in the project root and list required packages, for example Monolog:

{
    "require": {
        "monolog/monolog": "^2.0"
    }
}

Run composer install to download the dependencies into the vendor directory.

Packaging the Project

After installing dependencies, use PHP's ZipArchive to create a zip file that contains the whole project.

<?php
$projectPath = '/path/to/project';
$outputPath = '/path/to/output/project.zip';

$zip = new ZipArchive();
if ($zip->open($outputPath, ZipArchive::CREATE | ZipArchive::OVERWRITE) !== true) {
    die('Failed to create zip archive');
}

$dirIterator = new RecursiveDirectoryIterator($projectPath);
$iterator = new RecursiveIteratorIterator($dirIterator, RecursiveIteratorIterator::SELF_FIRST);

foreach ($iterator as $file) {
    if ($file->getFilename() === '.' || $file->getFilename() === '..') {
        continue;
    }
    $filePath = realpath($file->getPathname());
    $relativePath = str_replace($projectPath . '/', '', $filePath);
    if ($file->isDir()) {
        $zip->addEmptyDir($relativePath);
    } else {
        $zip->addFile($filePath, $relativePath);
    }
}
$zip->close();

echo 'Project has been successfully packaged';
?>

Adjust $projectPath to the project root and $outputPath to the desired zip location; the script produces project.zip containing all project files.

Deploying the Project

Upload the generated zip file to the deployment server, extract it, and configure a web server such as Apache or Nginx so the application can run correctly.

By following these steps—preparing the content, using Composer to manage dependencies, and packaging with PHP—you can reliably deploy PHP applications.