Bdi Laravel Package

Getting Started

Start by requiring the package via Composer:

composer require --dev dbrekelmans/bdi

This installs the browser-driver-installer PHAR as a Composer executable (vendor/bin/bdi). Run it once to see available commands:

vendor/bin/bdi list

The primary use case is automating browser driver (e.g., ChromeDriver, geckodriver) installation for browser automation tools like WebDriver (Selenium, PHP WebDriver) or testing frameworks (Laravel Dusk, Behat). Run vendor/bin/bdi install to download and place the latest compatible drivers in ~/.bdi/drivers.

Implementation Patterns

• CI/CD Integration: Include vendor/bin/bdi install in your CI pipeline before browser tests run (e.g., in before_script or steps), ensuring up-to-date drivers without hard-coding versions.
• Project-Agnostic Setup: Add vendor/bin/bdi to your composer.json scripts section for team consistency:

  "scripts": {
    "bdi:install": "@php vendor/bin/bdi install"
  }
  

  Then run composer bdi:install before testing locally.
• Laravel Dusk: Pair with dusk-updater or custom Artisan commands; for example, create php artisan dusk:drivers that calls exec('vendor/bin/bdi install').
• Custom Driver Paths: Override the default driver directory via config (e.g., ~/.bdi/config.yml):

  drivers_dir: "/path/to/project/drivers"
  

Gotchas and Tips

• PHAR Execution: Ensure allow_url_fopen is enabled and phar wrapper is not disabled in php.ini; otherwise, vendor/bin/bdi may fail silently.
• Architecture Mismatch: Drivers are architecture-specific. In Docker or non-x86 CI environments (e.g., ARM), verify driver compatibility—manual --arch flag might be needed: vendor/bin/bdi install --arch=arm64.
• Version Pinning: For stability in production test runs, use vendor/bin/bdi install --browser-version=118 to lock driver versions matching your browser environments.
• Debugging Failures: Run with -vvv for verbose output to inspect download URLs, HTTP status codes, and system environment checks.
• Extension Points: The package respects ~/.bdi/config.yml. Use it to set default options (e.g., auto_update: true) or custom driver source mirrors for air-gapped environments.