Script

The most important configuration for packages is script: it points to a script defined in package’s package.json.

For example, let’s take a package which has a composer.json like the following:

{
   "name": "acme/some-plugin",
   "extra": {
      "composer-asset-compiler": {
         "script": "build"
      }
   }
}

and a package.json like the following:

{
   "name": "acme/some-plugin",
   "devDependencies": {
      "gulp": "^4"
   },
   "scripts": {
      "build": "gulp build"
   }
}

When Composer Assets Compiler will execute it will find the configuration in the composer.json, and then look for a script named build in the package.json.

Founding it, Composer Assets Compiler will first install the dependencies (either via npm or Yarn) and then will execute the script (either via npm run build or yarn build).

Multiple scripts

It is possible to define multiple scripts which will be executed in series. Like:

{
   "name": "acme/some-plugin",
   "extra": {
      "composer-asset-compiler": {
         "script": ["prepare", "build"]
      }
   }
}

Short form

When script is the only configuration needed, it is possible to use a shorter form, something like this:

{
   "name": "acme/some-plugin",
   "extra": {
      "composer-asset-compiler": "build"
   }
}

that works with multiple scripts as well:

{
   "name": "acme/some-plugin",
   "extra": {
      "composer-asset-compiler": ["prepare", "build"]
   }
}

Parameters

Sometimes we need to pass parameters to the script. For example, having a package.json like the following:

{
   "name": "acme/some-plugin",
   "devDependencies": {
      "gulp": "^4"
   },
   "scripts": {
      "gulp": "gulp"
   }
}

we might want to pass the Gulp task name.

Manually, we would do that via npm run gulp -- task-name or yarn gulp task-name.

Since Composer Assets Compiler is agnostic about the package manager in use, it requires the npm syntax, converting it correctly if the used package manager is Yarn.

That means we can have a Composer Assets Compiler configuration like this:

{
   "name": "acme/some-plugin",
   "extra": {
      "composer-asset-compiler": "build -- task-name"
   }
}

and it will work with both npm and Yarn.

Environment variables

Many times, it is required to make the script more “dynamic”, and we can do that via environment variables.

For example:

{
   "name": "acme/some-plugin",
   "extra": {
      "composer-asset-compiler": "gulp -- ${COMPILE_TASK}"
   }
}

With that, we could set the COMPILE_TASK environment variable to, for example, "build" and the plugin will end up executing gulp build.

It is important to note that in the case the interpolated environment variables are not defined, the script might result invalid.

To prevent that, it is possible to use a default-env configuration.

Default environment

We could have a configuration like:

{
   "name": "acme/some-plugin",
   "extra": {
      "composer-asset-compiler": {
        "default-env": {
          "COMPILE_TASK": "build"
        },
        "script": "gulp -- ${COMPILE_TASK}"
      }
   }
}

Thanks to that, in the case the COMPILE_TASK environment variable is not defined, its value will default to build, and the script will stay valid.

A special mention has to be made in the regard of default-env when used in the root package.

In that case, defaults defined for the root package might also apply for dependencies, in the case dependencies don’t define default-env for missing environment variables.