In PHP, a composer is a dependency management tool that allows you to declare the libraries and packages your project depends on and manages them for you. It simplifies the process of managing dependencies by automatically downloading and installing them for you, as well as managing version conflicts and ensuring that all required dependencies are available in the correct version.
Using Composer, you can specify which packages and versions your PHP project depends on, and Composer will download and install them for you. It also makes it easy to update or remove packages, and ensures that all dependencies are properly loaded and configured in your project.
Composer works by reading a composer.json file in your project’s root directory, which lists the required packages and their versions. When you run composer install or composer update, Composer reads this file and downloads the required packages and their dependencies, installing them in the vendor directory.
Overall, Composer makes it much easier to manage dependencies in your PHP projects, allowing you to focus on writing code rather than worrying about which packages and versions to install.
