How to switch to Composer

Up until Mautic 4, users could download Mautic as a ZIP file and install it on any PHP server. However, many users were running into installation and update errors, many of which caused considerable frustration and in some cases, significant business disruption. Next to that, Mautic recently introduced the Marketplace which isn't compatible with this installation method.

For the reasons mentioned previously, from the release of Mautic 5, Composer becomes the default way to install and update Mautic. Read more in this blog post.

How to switch to a Composer-based installation?

Before starting, it's good to understand that there's two aspects to Mautic:

• The database. This is where Mautic stores your Contact data.
• The codebase. This is where Mautic interacts with the database.

When switching to a Composer-based installation, the database isn't touched, only the codebase.

In this tutorial, it's assumed that Mautic is currently installed in /var/www/html.

Here's the steps to follow to switch to a Composer-based installation:

1. Go to /var/www

2. Run composer create-project mautic/recommended-project:^4 html-new --no-interaction

3. Copy the following files and folders from /var/www/html to /var/www/html-new:

   • Configuration files - in most cases, located at app/config/local.php - move to docroot/app/config/local.php
   • The entire plugins directory - move to docroot/plugins
   • Uploads - in most cases, located at app/media/files and app/media/images - move to docroot/app/media/files and docroot/app/media/images respectively
   • Custom dashboards from app/media/dashboards - move to docroot/app/media/dashboards
   • Any custom themes from themes - move to /docroot/themes
   • Any translations from translations - move to /docroot/translations

4. Rename /var/www/html to /var/www/html-old and /var/www/html-new to /var/www/html

5. When you're done, update your web server configuration to point to /var/www/html/docroot instead of /var/www/html

6. Log into Mautic, and in your global settings, enable the switch to fully manage Mautic with Composer - this will also enable you to work with the Mautic Marketplace.

1. You have now switched to a Composer-based installation. Test if Mautic works as expected.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q: Is existing data retained?

A: Yes. Switching to the Composer-based installation only affects app files. Nothing happens to your data.

Q: What's the minimum Mautic version required to switch to the Composer-based installation?

A: You need at least Mautic 4.0.0 for switching to the Composer-based installation.