Magento Composer Replacement Tool

This repository offers a composer plugin to help you manage composer replacements in your root composer.json. Once this package is installed, the composer plugin is installed, which allows you to manage replacements via specific commands (composer replace:?). To make sure replacements don't conflict, this plugin adds its own section extra.replace to your composer.json as well.

Installation of this plugin

composer require yireo/magento2-replace-tools

General usage

Through a series commands, this composer plugin aims to help you manage your replace section more efficiently. Instead of individually adding packages, packages are added in bulk through an additional composer section extra.replace:

{
    "replace": {
        "klarna/module-kp-graph-ql": "*",
        "magento/module-async-order-graph-ql": "*",
        "magento/module-authorizenet-graph-ql": "*",
        "magento/module-braintree-graph-ql": "*",
        "magento/module-bundle-graph-ql": "*",
        "magento/module-catalog-graph-ql": "*",
        ...
        "yireo/example-graph-ql"
    },
    "extra": {
        "replace": {
            "bulk": {
                "yireo/magento2-replace-graph-ql": true
            },
            "exclude": {
                "magento/module-graph-ql": true
            },
            "include": {
                "yireo/example-graph-ql": true
            }
        }
    }
}

Replacing packages (any composer project)

List all current composer replacements:

composer replace:list

Replace a specific package:

composer replace:add foo/bar '2.0'

Remove a specific replacement:

composer replace:remove foo/bar

Remove a specific package (by using a version set to *):

composer replace:add foo/bar

Replacing packages by bulk (Magento-specific)

Replace all Magento Multi Source Inventory packages:

composer replace:bulk:add yireo/magento2-replace-inventory

This adds all replacements from this meta-package yireo/magento2-replace-inventory to your own replace section. And it also adds an additional section like the following:

    "extra": {
        "replace": {
            "bulk": {
                "yireo/magento2-replace-inventory": true
            }
        }
    },

Replace all Magento GraphQL packages, but not the magento/module-graph-ql package itself, but again also replacing a package yireo/example-graph-ql:

composer replace:bulk:add yireo/magento2-replace-graphql
composer replace:bulk:exclude magento/module-graph-ql
composer replace:bulk:include yireo/example-graph-ql
composer replace:validate
composer replace:build

This adds all replacements from this meta-package yireo/magento2-replace-graphql (except the package magento/module-graph-ql but including the package yireo/example-graph-ql) to your own replace section. And it also adds an additional section like the following:

{
  "replace": {
      "klarna/module-kp-graph-ql": "*",
      "magento/module-async-order-graph-ql": "*",
      "magento/module-authorizenet-graph-ql": "*",
      "magento/module-braintree-graph-ql": "*",
      "magento/module-bundle-graph-ql": "*",
      "magento/module-catalog-graph-ql": "*",
      ...
      "yireo/example-graph-ql"
  },  
  "extra": {
    "replace": {
      "bulk": {
        "yireo/magento2-replace-graph-ql": true
      },
      "exclude": {
        "magento/module-graph-ql": true
      },
      "include": {
        "yireo/example-graph-ql": true
      }
    }
  }
}

Available bulk packages

• yireo/magento2-replace-bundled removes third party bundled extensions
• yireo/magento2-replace-content-staging removes optional Content Staging modules
• yireo/magento2-replace-core removes optional core modules
• yireo/magento2-replace-graphql removes optional GraphQL modules
• yireo/magento2-replace-inventory removes optional MSI modules
• yireo/magento2-replace-sample-data removes sample data modules
• yireo/magento2-replace-all removes all packages listed in the other directories

Please note that the replace feature of composer as being used in these repositories is not well documented and probably abused a bit. If you are not willing to invest time to troubleshoot this yourself, please forget about this approach entirely so that we don't waste anyones time.

Building composer replacements

Use the following command to configure your composer.json for using bulk replacements:

composer replace:bulk add yireo/magento2-replace-bundled
composer replace:bulk add yireo/magento2-replace-inventory
composer replace:bulk add yireo/magento2-replace-graphql
composer replace:bulk add yireo/magento2-replace-sample-data
composer replace:validate
composer replace:build

Using composer replacements

Once you have a replace section in your composer.json file

rm -r vendor/
composer update

Do not just use composer install. Do not use regular composer commands, but please follow this procedure literally and to the point.

After having replaced Magento composer packages

After you have installed a composer replacement, make sure to wipe out the generated/ folder first and next, run bin/magento setup:di:compile and bin/magento setup:upgrade to see if Magento still works. Please note that these steps are generic developer steps, not related to this repository.

rm -r generated/
bin/magento setup:di:compile
bin/magento setup:upgrade

FAQ

I try to install this with composer require a/b but get errors

Please note that this kind of question is not going to be answered anymore, except here: Do not use a simple composer require a/b command. It is not documented above, it is not part of the procedure and it does not work. Do not reason that if you know composer, you know that a simple composer require a/b must work. If you think composer replacements are installed the way as composer packages, you do not know composer replacements.

If you want to receive support, follow along with all of the commands outlined above. And stick to it. Don't argue, don't reason, but stick with it. Next, if all of the workarounds with composer commands fail, only then report an issue on GitHub.

Your extension does not work

You are damn right it does not! The reason is that it is not an extension. This is not about installing Magento modules. This is about replacing composer packages with nothing. The extension is not there, it is not a Magento module. It is rather a carefully crafted composer configuration that could be copied manually or installed with the right procedure. It is a composer meta-package with an undocumented trick. If you don't like it, don't use it.

Installing a package leads to many errors

Intruiging, isn't it? Yes, this could happen. Perhaps some modules that you are replacing are in use with your own custom code. Or perhaps you are relying on other third party extensions that have yet an undocumented dependency that conflicts with this replace trick. If you are not willing to troubleshoot this, simply skip this trick and move on. If you are willing to troubleshoot this, copy the replace lines to your own composer.json and remove lines one-by-one until you have found the culprit.

Is a certain package compatible with Magento 2.x.y?

Theoretically, yes. Make sure to understand that these packages are not modules, not libraries, not Magento extensions. It is a gathering of hacks. So, if you understand the benefit of the replace trick in composer, you can use these repository to ease the pain of upgrading.

One conceptual idea in these repositories is to try to keep track of the main Magento version by creating a branch 2.x.y with a corresponding release x.y.z. So, Magento 2.3.5 matches with the replace branch 3.5.*. Magento 2.4.1 matches with the replace branch 4.1. By adding a dependency with ^4.0 in your composer.json, this will automatically upgrade to any 4.X version, but exclude a major bump to 5.X.

Sometimes the actual work falls behind, which by no means indicates that the current bundling of tricks no longer works. Simply, install this package using composer and see if this works for you (see below).

How do I upgrade the replacements to Magento 2.4.X?

Please note the above on the versioning strategy. Once that's understood, the actual implementation is simple: composer require yireo/magento2-replace-core:^4.0 --no-update.

How to test if this is working?

Take your test environment. Install the relevant packages. If this works, run bin/magento setup:di:compile (in both Developer Mode and Production Mode) to see if there are any errors. If this fails, feel free to report an issue here. If this works, you could assume that this works ok.

Remember this repository offers a smart hack, not a supported solution. You can also live with a slower Magento installation that fully complies with the Magento standards (and ships with modules you don't use and/or like).

How do I know if something is replaced?

Unfortunately, composer does not offer a CLI for this and because the replacements are stored in these packages, they are not mentioned in your own projects composer.json (unless you put them there). However, by opening up the composer.lock file and searching for the keyword replace you can see which packages are replaced by all packages in your installation. A simple composer show yireo/magento2-replace-bundled shows which replacements are included in a specific package.