Build, test, and deploy PHP apps

Azure DevOps Services

This article shows how to create a pipeline in Azure Pipelines that builds a PHP web app and deploys it to Azure App Service. App Service is an HTTP-based service for hosting web applications, REST APIs, and mobile back ends. The pipeline uses continuous integration from GitHub source and continuous delivery to App Service to automatically build, test, and deploy PHP apps.

Azure Pipelines builds your PHP projects without you having to set up any infrastructure. PHP is preinstalled on Microsoft-hosted agents, along with many common libraries for PHP versions. You can use Linux, macOS, or Windows agents to run your builds. For more information about which PHP versions are preinstalled, see Software.

Prerequisites

• Your own fork of the sample GitHub PHP project at https://github.com/Azure-Samples/php-docs-hello-world.

• A PHP web app created for the project in Azure App Service. To quickly create a PHP web app, see Create a PHP web app in Azure App Service. You can also use your own PHP GitHub project and web app.

You also need the following prerequisites:

Example pipeline

The following example azure-pipelines.yml file based on the PHP as Linux Web App on Azure pipeline template has two stages, Build and Deploy. The Build stage installs PHP 8.2, and then runs tasks to archive your project files and publish a ZIP build artifact to a package named drop.

The Deploy stage runs if the Build stage succeeds, and deploys the drop package to App Service by using the Azure Web App task. When you use the PHP as Linux Web App on Azure template to create your pipeline, the generated pipeline sets and uses variables and other values based on your configuration settings.

    - script: composer install --no-interaction --prefer-dist
     workingDirectory: $(rootFolder)
     displayName: 'Composer install'

trigger:
- main

variables:
  # Azure Resource Manager service connection
  azureSubscription: 'service-connection-based-on-subscription-id'
  # Web app name
  webAppName: 'my-php-web-app'
  # Agent VM image name
  vmImageName: 'ubuntu-22.04'
  # Environment name
  environmentName: 'my-php-web-app-environment'
  # Root folder where your composer.json file is available.
  rootFolder: $(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)

stages:
- stage: Build
  displayName: Build stage
  variables:
    phpVersion: '8.2'
  jobs:
  - job: BuildJob
    pool:
      vmImage: $(vmImageName)
    steps:
    - script: |
        sudo update-alternatives --set php /usr/bin/php$(phpVersion)
        sudo update-alternatives --set phar /usr/bin/phar$(phpVersion)
        sudo update-alternatives --set phpdbg /usr/bin/phpdbg$(phpVersion)
        sudo update-alternatives --set php-cgi /usr/bin/php-cgi$(phpVersion)
        sudo update-alternatives --set phar.phar /usr/bin/phar.phar$(phpVersion)
        php -version
      workingDirectory: $(rootFolder)
      displayName: 'Use PHP version $(phpVersion)'

    - task: ArchiveFiles@2
      displayName: 'Archive files'
      inputs:
        rootFolderOrFile: '$(rootFolder)'
        includeRootFolder: false
        archiveType: zip
        archiveFile: $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)/$(Build.BuildId).zip
        replaceExistingArchive: true

    - upload: $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)/$(Build.BuildId).zip
      displayName: 'Upload package'
      artifact: drop

- stage: Deploy
  displayName: 'Deploy Web App'
  dependsOn: Build
  condition: succeeded()
  jobs:
  - deployment: DeploymentJob
    pool:
      vmImage: $(vmImageName)
    environment: $(environmentName)
    strategy:
      runOnce:
        deploy:
          steps:
          - task: AzureWebApp@1
            displayName: 'Deploy Azure Web App'
            inputs:
              azureSubscription: $(azureSubscription)
              appName: $(webAppName)
              package: $(Pipeline.Workspace)/drop/$(Build.BuildId).zip

Create the YAML pipeline

To create and run the example pipeline, take the following steps:

1. In your Azure DevOps project, select Pipelines from the left navigation menu, and then select New pipeline or Create pipeline if this pipeline is the first in the project.

2. On the Where is your code page, select GitHub.

3. On the Select a repository page, select your forked php-docs-hello-world repository.

4. Azure Pipelines recognizes the code as a PHP app, and suggests several pipeline templates on the Configure your pipeline page. For this example, select PHP as Linux Web App on Azure.

5. On the next screen, select your Azure subscription and select Continue. This action creates a service connection to your Azure resources.

6. On the next screen, select your Azure web app and select Validate and configure. Azure Pipelines creates an azure-pipelines.yml file and displays it in the YAML pipeline editor.

7. On the Review your pipeline YAML screen, review the code for your pipeline. When you're ready, select Save and run.

   

8. On the next screen, select Save and run again to commit the new azure-pipelines.yml file to your repository and start a CI/CD build.

   Note

   The first time the pipeline runs, it asks for permission to access the environment it creates. Select Permit to grant permission for the pipeline to access the environment.

9. To watch your pipeline in action, select the job on the run Summary page. When the run completes, select the App Service Application URL link in the Deploy Azure Web App step to see the deployed web app.

Customize the pipeline

You can edit the pipeline by selecting the More actions icon at upper right on the run Summary page and then selecting Edit pipeline, or by selecting Edit at upper right on the pipeline's page. Each edit that you commit to the repository kicks off a new CI/CD pipeline run.

You can customize the pipeline in several ways:

Use a specific PHP version

Multiple PHP versions are installed on Microsoft-hosted Ubuntu agents. A symlink at /usr/bin/php points to the current PHP version, so when you run php, the set version executes.

To use a PHP version other than the default, you can point the symlink to the desired version using the update-alternatives command. In your YAML pipeline, change the value of the phpVersion variable to the version you want, and use the following snippet:

variables:
  phpVersion: 8.3

steps:
- script: |
    sudo update-alternatives --set php /usr/bin/php$(phpVersion)
    sudo update-alternatives --set phar /usr/bin/phar$(phpVersion)
    sudo update-alternatives --set phpdbg /usr/bin/phpdbg$(phpVersion)
    sudo update-alternatives --set php-cgi /usr/bin/php-cgi$(phpVersion)
    sudo update-alternatives --set phar.phar /usr/bin/phar.phar$(phpVersion)
    php -version
  displayName: 'Use PHP version $(phpVersion)'

Install dependencies

To use Composer to install dependencies, include the following snippet in your azure-pipelines.yml file:

- script: composer install --no-interaction --prefer-dist
  displayName: 'composer install'

If your composer.json file isn't in the root directory, you can use the --working-dir argument to specify what directory to use. For example, if composer.json is in the subfolder /pkgs, use composer install --no-interaction --working-dir=pkgs. You can also specify an absolute path using the built-in system variable: --working-dir='$(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)/pkgs'.

Test with PHPUnit

To run tests with PHPUnit, add the following snippet to your azure-pipelines.yml file:

- script: ./phpunit
  displayName: 'Run tests with phpunit'

Retain the PHP artifacts with the build record

To save the artifacts of the build with the build record, include the Archive Files task in your pipeline, and optionally customize the value of rootFolderOrFile to change what the archive includes.

- task: ArchiveFiles@2
  inputs:
    rootFolderOrFile: '$(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)'
    includeRootFolder: false

Related content

• Deploy to App Service using Azure Pipelines
• Deployment jobs
• YAML templates in pipelines