DDEV

DDEV is an open source tool for launching local PHP development environments in minutes.

DDEV creates a config.yaml, this contains all settings for your project. This can be versioned in GIT and supports collaborative work in teams or freelancers.

Info

To use the DDEV, Docker must be installed on your system. If this is not yet the case, you can download the DDEV documentation for more information about installing these programs.

Install DDEV

DDEV is available for all platforms, please refer to the DDEV documentation for the installation of your platform.

Create project

Tip

The Contao demo website is maintained for the currently supported Contao versions and can be optionally installed. Via the Contao Manager you can simply select this option during the first installation.

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Open the console of your choice, create the desired directory and then change to it. The directory name reflects the subsequent project hostname. However, you can configure this additionally.

mkdir contao && cd contao

Create the DDEV configuration with:

ddev config --project-type=php --docroot=public --webserver-type=apache-fpm --php-version=8.2

Install Contao 5.3:

ddev composer create contao/managed-edition:5.3

After installation, the database credentials must be entered in the .env.local. At the same time, we also set up Mailpit directly.

ddev dotenv set .env.local --database-url=mysql://db:db@db:3306/db --mailer-dsn=smtp://localhost:1025

Then create the database:

ddev exec contao-console contao:migrate --no-interaction

Create backend user (Administrator):

ddev exec contao-console contao:user:create --username=admin --name=Administrator --email=admin@example.com --language=en --admin

Call up the Administration in the browser:

ddev launch contao

Open the console of your choice, create the desired directory and then change to it. The directory name reflects the subsequent project hostname. However, you can configure this additionally.

mkdir contao && cd contao

Create the DDEV configuration with:

ddev config --project-type=php --docroot=public --webserver-type=apache-fpm --php-version=8.2

After installation, the database access data must be entered in the .env.local. At the same time, we also set up Mailpit directly.

ddev dotenv set .env.local --database-url=mysql://db:db@db:3306/db --mailer-dsn=smtp://localhost:1025

Download the Contao Manager, rename it (.php) and copy it into the public directory. You can also use wget or curl to do this.

ddev start
ddev exec "wget -O public/contao-manager.phar.php https://download.contao.org/contao-manager/stable/contao-manager.phar"

Open the Contao Manager and follow the instructions:

ddev launch contao-manager.phar.php

Additional information

You can find more information about managing projects here.

  • ddev start starts the project, ddev stop ends it. Make sure beforehand that you have changed to the project folder.

  • ddev poweroff can stop all started projects/containers from any directory.

  • With ddev ssh you can switch to the shell of the container and work on the console. The ddev binary is not available in the container, so first switch to the host console with exit.

  • ddev describe gives an overview of the services available in the project and how to access them.

  • ddev xdebug on starts XDebug. Information about the IDE setup

Info

If you are a Windows user using the “Git Bash” as a console, it may be necessary, depending on your “Git for Windows” configuration, to prepend the command winpty (e.g.: winpty ddev ssh).

Custom PHP Configuration

DDEV can be used to provide additional PHP configurations for a project. You can add any number of .ini files in the directory .ddev/php/. Subsequent changes require a ddev restart. Further information can be found in the DDEV documentation.

An example file in .ddev/php/my-php.ini could look like this:

[PHP]
memory_limit = -1

Database Tools

If you want to use a database client such as Adminer or phpMyAdmin for example, you can install these as a Addon.

Example: Adminer

ddev add-on get ddev/ddev-adminer && ddev restart

Example: phpMyAdmin

ddev add-on get ddev/ddev-phpmyadmin && ddev restart

With ddev describe you can find out how to access the respective database tool.