Improve the process of downloading and installing Contao

[zoglo]

Problem

When downloading Contao, users download a contao-manager.phar that they then need to:

1. Manually rename into a contao-manager.phar.php
2. Move into a /public folder that needs a document root.

Solution

• For no. 1, I propose to rename the download file to contao-manager.phar.php (Shopware does it as well https://www.shopware.com/de/download/)

• For no. 2 I don't know of a better solution as of right now.

  It is too late in the contao-manager as it self-moves itself into public in the installation process, leaving the user with a white page (as it did move itself) and the API breaks.

  Maybe the download page needs to be restructured in some way to make it more clear. Maybe the text needs to be improved upon?

  Maybe provide a video guide of installing Contao in the contao documentation?
  https://docs.contao.org/manual/en/installation/quickstart/#root-directory-document-root

[fritzmg]

For no. 1, I propose to rename the download file to contao-manager.phar.php (Shopware does it as well https://www.shopware.com/de/download/)

If you transfer this file via (S)FTP after downloading, it will not work, depending on how the client transferred the file. That is why we instruct to upload the .phar instead and then rename it afterwards.

How does Shopware circumvent this issue? (If it circumvents it at all.)

[zoglo]

How does Shopware circumvent this issue? (If it circumvents it at all.)

The download button provides it as a phar.php.
In my case, I always renamed it locally to .php, then uploaded it (back then when I was using the manager) and it always worked.

So most likely not circumventing it at all.

The demo just adds a note that .phar files are not executed , hence why you should use .php at the end:
https://docs.contao.org/manual/en/installation/quickstart/#installing-the-contao-manager

Only after that, it tells you to rename it on the server, however it doesn't state why.

[fritzmg]

The download button provides it as a phar.php.

Yes, but how does Shopware circumvent the issue?

[zoglo]

Yes, but how does Shopware circumvent the issue?

They do not circumvent it at all
https://docs.shopware.com/en/shopware-6-en/first-steps/installing-shopware-6

And if you upload php files, you should do so in Binary mode, that could also be documented if that change is done.
I made a proposal, maybe you know a better way of simplifying the installation.

[fritzmg]

I was only explaining why point 1 is the way it is and I don't see a reason to change it.

[zoglo]

@leofeyer can you label this as up for discussion?

[leofeyer]

As discussed in the call, a .phar.php file will be transferred as text via FTP(S) instead of as binary code, therefore we don't want to change this. However, we could add a simple downloader as outlined by @Toflar:

<?php

$downloadUrl = 'https://download.contao.org/contao-manager/stable/contao-manager.phar';
$targetFile  = __DIR__ . '/contao-manager.phar.php';

$data = @file_get_contents($downloadUrl);

if ($data === false) {
    http_response_code(500);
    die('Error: Failed to download Contao Manager from ' . $downloadUrl);
}

if (@file_put_contents($targetFile, $data) === false) {
    http_response_code(500);
    die('Error: Failed to write file to ' . $targetFile);
}

@unlink(__FILE__);

header('Location: ./contao-manager.phar.php');
exit;

[aschempp]

see https://github.com/contao/contao-manager/blob/main/installer.php for the installer (available at https://download.contao.org/contao-manager.phar.php)

[aschempp]

The website has been updated. @zoglo do you think we can close this?

[zoglo]

We can close it as #1 has been implemented, part #2 was done in the docs and not the website (that still only redirects to the documentation), but that should have been in a separate issue 👍