Plugin could not be found after Upgrade to Plugin Installer 1.3.x with Composer 1.x & CakePHP 3.x

[ravage84]

CakePHP: 3.9.3
Composer: 1.10.17
OS: Windows & Linux
CakePHP Plugin Installer: 1.2.0 vs. 1.3.1

We recently updated the cakephp/plugin-installer dependency of a CakePHP 3.9.x application from 1.2.0 to 1.3.1.
Today we wanted to deploy that application but it failed with:

Fatal error: [Cake\Core\Exception\MissingPluginException] Plugin PluginToLoad could not be found. (/path/to/appvendor\cakephp\cakephp\src\Core\PluginCollection.php:207)
#0 /path/to/appvendor\cakephp\cakephp\src\Core\Plugin.php(254): Cake\Core\PluginCollection->get('PluginToLoad')
#1 /path/to/appvendor\cakephp\cakephp\src\Core\App.php(189): Cake\Core\Plugin::classPath('PluginToLoad'
 #2 /path/to/appvendor\cakephp\cakephp\src\View\View.php(1786): Cake\Core\App::path('Template', 'PluginToLoad')
#3 /path/to/appvendor\cakephp\cakephp\src\View\View.php(1600): Cake\View\View->_paths(NULL)
#4 /path/to/appvendor\cakephp\cakephp\src\View\View.php(888): Cake\View\View->_getViewFileName('Error\\error500')
#5 /path/to/appvendor\cakephp\cakephp\src\Error\ExceptionRenderer.php(410): Cake\View\View->render('error500', 'error')
#6 /path/to/appvendor\cakephp\cake in /path/to/appvendor\cakephp\cakephp\src\Error\ErrorHandler.php on line 181

After downgrading again to 1.2.0, it functioned again.

//cc @orca-services

[dereuromark]

You can use composer v2 and Cake3, I have apps that work this way
Is there a need for you to still use v1?

That said: I agree we should fix it though :) As there is no technical limit right now preventing anyone from downloading a new minor.

[ravage84]

Is there a need for you to still use v1?

We simply haven't validated Composer compatibility in all cases. Once validated, we upgrade to Composer 2.

[othercorey]

Is the cakephp-plugins.php file generated correctly? Is there any plugin-installer output when running composer?

[ravage84]

@othercorey

Is the cakephp-plugins.php file generated correctly?

With a simple composer install and composer update it does.

Is there any plugin-installer output when running composer?

No, I see no output. I had one before I deleted the hook I was instructed to delete.

But I found the difference:

For our build artifact, we use composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader --ignore-platform-reqs --prefer-dist --no-scripts . Aparently, the --no-scripts part is necessary for creating the cakephp-plugins.php.

[ravage84]

At first, I thought we could run without --no-script but we want to make sure that when creating the build artifact, we must not run the Installer::postInstall script.

[dereuromark]

Then you just need to invoke the needed hook/script manually after composer install is finished.

[ravage84]

@dereuromark fine.

But if you mean the method \Cake\Composer\Installer\PluginInstaller::postAutoloadDump(), it won't work as this class is deprecated and the metthod does nothing (anymore).

The other one, Cake\Composer\Plugin::postAutoloadDump isn't static, so it can't be invoked.

Is there another way, I have overlooked?

[ADmad]

composer dumpautoload --optimize will generate the cakephp-plugins.php file.

[dereuromark]

Maybe we should update the README and adjust this snippet into it - for future references.