**Course Title:** Mastering Yii Framework: Building Scalable Web Applications **Section Title:** Introduction to Yii and Development Environment **Topic:** Setting up a Yii development environment (Composer, PHP, and Yii installer) **Overview** ---------------- In this topic, we will guide you through the process of setting up a Yii development environment. We will cover the installation of Composer, PHP, and the Yii installer, which are essential tools for building scalable web applications with Yii. By the end of this topic, you will have a fully functional Yii development environment set up and be ready to start building your first Yii application. **Prerequisites** ----------------- Before we begin, make sure you have the following: * A computer with a compatible operating system (Windows, macOS, or Linux) * A text editor or IDE (Integrated Development Environment) of your choice * Basic knowledge of PHP and web development ** Composer Installation ** ------------------------- Composer is a dependency manager for PHP that allows you to easily install and manage libraries and frameworks, including Yii. To install Composer, follow these steps: 1. **Windows Users**: Download the Composer installer from the official [Composer website](https://getcomposer.org/download/). Follow the installation instructions to install Composer. 2. **macOS and Linux Users**: Run the following command in your terminal to install Composer: ```bash php -r "copy('https://getcomposer.org/installer', 'composer-setup.php');" php -r "if (hash_file('SHA384', 'composer-setup.php') === 'e115a8dc7871f15d853148a7fbac7daad1a46d9eaf4b55be445bc0fe177b75') { echo 'Installer verified'; } else { echo 'Installer corrupt'; unlink('composer-setup.php'); } echo PHP_EOL;" php composer-setup.php php -r "unlink('composer-setup.php');" ``` **Verify Composer Installation** To verify that Composer has been installed successfully, run the following command in your terminal: ```bash composer --version ``` **PHP Installation** ------------------ Yii requires PHP 7.4 or later. If you don't have PHP installed on your system, download and install it from the official [PHP website](https://www.php.net/downloads). Make sure to install the latest version of PHP. **Verify PHP Installation** To verify that PHP has been installed successfully, run the following command in your terminal: ```bash php -v ``` **Yii Installation** ------------------ The Yii installer is a tool that helps you create new Yii projects. To install the Yii installer, run the following command: ```bash composer global require "fxp/composer-asset-plugin:^1.4.0 --no-plugins" composer create-project --prefer-dist yiisoft/yii2-app-basic yiibase ``` The above command will create a new Yii project called `yiibase` in the current directory. **Verify Yii Installation** To verify that Yii has been installed successfully, navigate to the `yiibase` directory and run the following command: ```bash php yii ``` You should see a list of available Yii commands. **Creating a New Yii Project** ----------------------------- To create a new Yii project, run the following command: ```bash composer create-project --prefer-dist yiisoft/yii2-app-basic myapp ``` Replace `myapp` with the name of your project. **Conclusion** -------------- In this topic, we covered the installation of Composer, PHP, and the Yii installer. We also verified the installation of each tool and created a new Yii project. You now have a fully functional Yii development environment set up and are ready to start building your first Yii application. **What's Next?** ---------------- In the next topic, we will explore the MVC (Model-View-Controller) architecture, which is the foundation of the Yii framework. **Leave a comment/ask for help** ----------------------------- If you have any questions or need further clarification on any of the steps outlined in this topic, please leave a comment or ask for help. [Return to Top](#)