Civix is a command-line tool for building CiviCRM extensions.

Requirements

• PHP 5.3+
• CiviCRM 4.2+ (installed from git http://github.com/civicrm)
• (For MAMP, WAMP, XAMPP, etc) PHP command-line configuration (http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC/Setup+Command-Line+PHP)
• (For CentOS/RHEL) Compatible version of libxml2 (totten#19)

Download: Single Executable

Civix is distributed as a single, portable PHAR executable. As long as you have PHP-CLI properly configured, it should work as a simple download, e.g.

sudo curl -LsS https://download.civicrm.org/civix/civix.phar -o /usr/local/bin/civix
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/civix

To upgrade an existing installation, simply re-download the latest civix.phar.

Download: Git + Composer (Linux/OS X)

To download the source tree and all dependencies, use git and composer, e.g.:

$ git clone https://github.com/totten/civix
$ cd civix
$ composer install

Download: Git + Composer (Windows)

# Install composer
In a browser, visit http://getcomposer.org
Click on the download button.
Scroll down to Windows Installer and click on Composer-Setup.exe.
Choose Run when prompted.

# Install git
If you don't already have git, then in a browser visit http://git-scm.com/download/win.
Choose Run when prompted.
Leave all the defaults.

# Download civix
Decide where you want to install civix. You might want to put it in C:\Program Files, but you might get hassled about admin rights, in which case you can pick somewhere else, like C:\users\<your name>.
From the start menu choose All Programs -> Git -> Git Bash.
In the window that appears, type:
  cd "/c/users/<your name>"
  (note the forward slashes)
git clone git://github.com/totten/civix.git
exit

# Download dependencies
In windows explorer, navigate to C:\users\<your name> (or whereever you installed civix).
Shift-right-click on the civix folder.
Choose open command window here.
In the window that appears, type:
  composer install

# Add civix to the PATH
Either temporarily add it:
set PATH=%PATH%;C:\users\<your name>\civix\bin

OR permanently:
Start Menu -> Control Panel -> System -> Advanced -> Environment Variables

Documentation

The CiviCRM wiki includes tutorials for building extensions. See:

http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC/Create+an+Extension

For reference documentation, civix supports a "--help" option. For example, to get reference materials about the "generate:page" command, run:

civix generate:page --help

Development: Custom Build

If you are developing new changes to civix and want to create custom build of civix.phar from source, you must have git, composer, and box installed. Then run:

$ git clone https://github.com/totten/civix
...
$ cd civix
$ composer install
...
$ which box
/usr/local/bin/box
$ php -dphar.readonly=0 /usr/local/bin/box build

Development: Testing

There isn't a proper test-suite, but the script tests/make-example.sh will run all the code-generators (with a given build/version of CiviCRM). It's not pretty, though -- it assumes you're using buildkit and Drupal single-site.

## Usage: tests/make-example.sh <BUILDKIT_ROOT> <BUILDKIT_BUILD>
bash tests/make-example.sh ~/buildkit dmaster

## Make a copy of the original output.
cp -r ~/buildkit/build/dmaster/sites/all/modules/civicrm/tools/extensions/org.civicrm.civixexample{,-orig}

## Hack the code... then rerun...
bash tests/make-example.sh ~/buildkit dmaster

## And see how the outputs changed.
colordiff -ru ~/buildkit/build/dmaster/sites/all/modules/civicrm/tools/extensions/org.civicrm.civixexample{-orig,}

## Tip: Use && to run the last two commands together
bash tests/make-example.sh ~/buildkit dmaster && colordiff -ru ~/buildkit/build/dmaster/sites/all/modules/civicrm/tools/extensions/org.civicrm.civixexample{-orig,}