Chapter 1. Composer, Configuration, Classes, and Path Aliases

Before diving into Yii Framework 2, we need to take a look at how it is installed, how it is configured, and what the core building blocks of the framework are. In this chapter, we'll go over how to install the framework itself and prebuilt applications via a package management tool called Composer. We'll also cover some common configurations of both Yii Framework 2 and our web server, including making our applications aware of the environment they are running on and responding appropriately to that environment.

Note

The most common ways to reference Yii Framework 2 are Yii Framework 2, YF2, and Yii2. We'll be using these terms interchangeably throughout the book.