Composer => Wordpress plugin workflow

Question

The question first so you know, while reading, what my problem is: What is the correct workflow for updating a plugin within in composer/wordpress project all managed with git?

I've a wordpress project with the following directory structure:

• root
  • httpdocs
  • wp-content
    • plugins
  • wp-config.php
  • ...
  • composer.json

and inside the plugins folder:

• myplugin
  • composer.json

The stripped root composer.json looks like this:

{
    [...]
    "require": {
        "example/myplugin": "dev-master"
    },
    "repositories": [
        {
            "type": "composer",
            "url": "http://composer.example.com"
        }
    ],
    "extra": {
        "installer-paths": {
            "httpdocs/wp-content/plugins/{$name}": [
                "example/myplugin"
            ]
        }
    }
}

And the composer.json inside the the myplugin folder:

{
    [...]
    "license": "proprietary",
    "require": {
        [...]
    },
    "type": "wordpress-plugin",
    "autoload": {
        "classmap": [
            "controllers",
            "lib",
            "models"
        ]
    }
}

At example.com I installed a private static composer repository (satis). So far so good, I can install all dependencies, myplugin and the myplugin dependencies with php composer.phar install in the root folder.

Now the (my) problems begin:

• Updating: myplugin is a composer package, not a git submodule. How can I update the package while developing and testing? With a git submodule I could simply commit and push the changes, but with the composer package I have to keep the git repository for myplugin somwhere else and update from there, correct?
• Autoloading: I moved the autoload parameter from the root composer.json into the myplugin composer.json. But now the autoloader wont work correct. I can reinstall the composer dependencies without problems, and replaced the path (before: httpdocs/.../myplugin/controllers, now: controllers)

I was searching for about 6 hours but there are no information about this (or I searched for the wrong keywords)

Answer 1

This only answers part of your question, but if you add the git url to your root project's composer.json as a git repository, Composer will do a clone into the plugin directory. That will allow you to commit back directly.

Example:

   "repositories": [
        {
            "type": "git",
            "url": "[e-mail]:my-git-name/my-plugin.git"
        },
        ...
    ]