Some people on windows can't figure out how to install composer

• Usability

I got the following discussion on IRC. Someone whoc knows about windows should have a look.

[samedi 2 novembre 2019] [11:44:10 CET] <s79535> Hello I was wondering if anyone could assist me in properly installing composer so I can run packages for Tiki Wiki?

[dimanche 3 novembre 2019] [15:18:43 CET] <s7953544> Well I installed composer using the installer. Then I ran setup.sh on my cmd window in my tikiwiki directory
[dimanche 3 novembre 2019] [15:18:44 CET] <s7953544> found
[dimanche 3 novembre 2019] [15:31:16 CET] <s7953544> I don't believe I am "behind" a proxy so I am confused as to what could be causing this issue.
[dimanche 3 novembre 2019] [16:04:43 CET] <s79535> Well I installed composer using the installer. Then I ran setup.sh on my cmd window in my tikiwiki directory
[dimanche 3 novembre 2019] [16:04:43 CET] <s79535> found We have failed to obtain the composer executable. NB: Maybe you are behing a proxy, just export https_proxy variable and relaunch setup.sh 1) Download it from http://getcomposer.org 2) Store it in temp/
[dimanche 3 novembre 2019] [16:09:31 CET] <s79535> Support would be greatly appreciated, my end goal is to be able to install packages, but the composer installation is hindering me from doing that

[lundi 4 novembre 2019] [11:10:48 CET] <Jyhem_laptop> s79535: Any hint about WHY composer was not downloaded in the error messages before the « We have failed to obtain the composer executable » thing?
[lundi 4 novembre 2019] [11:10:57 CET] <Jyhem_laptop> setup.sh attempts to download composer.phar using curl. If curl is not there, it attempts to user php's fil_get_content() function
[lundi 4 novembre 2019] [11:11:01 CET] <Jyhem_laptop> maybe curl is missing?
[lundi 4 novembre 2019] [11:11:22 CET] <Jyhem_laptop> the same result can be achieved by following https://getcomposer.org/download/ in directory temp
[lundi 4 novembre 2019] [11:21:17 CET] <s79535> what is curl?
[lundi 4 novembre 2019] [11:24:33 CET] <s79535> I've done the command line installation, but tiki still says composer not found
[lundi 4 novembre 2019] [11:31:19 CET] <s79535> Maybe tiki's composer 'detector' is not working properly?
[lundi 4 novembre 2019] [11:34:13 CET] <Jyhem> is there a file named composer.phar in directory temp ?
[lundi 4 novembre 2019] [11:37:20 CET] <Jyhem> If there is, tiki's composer 'detector' is not working properly.
[lundi 4 novembre 2019] [11:37:51 CET] <Jyhem> If there is not, then Tiki's guesses about what is wrong and what could be done is wrong
[lundi 4 novembre 2019] [11:39:25 CET] <s79535> Oh wait I did the command line installation directly in my tiki folder
[lundi 4 novembre 2019] [11:39:36 CET] <Jyhem> curl is command-line tool (curl) for transferring data using various protocols
[lundi 4 novembre 2019] [11:39:52 CET] <s79535> But you're saying I should have done that in the temp directory
[lundi 4 novembre 2019] [11:40:16 CET] <Jyhem> if you got composer.phar in the root Tiki folder, just move it to temp
[lundi 4 novembre 2019] [11:40:32 CET] <s79535> ok
[lundi 4 novembre 2019] [11:42:24 CET] <Jyhem> sh setup.sh should be run in the root Tiki folder, but the workaround I suggested skips running setup.sh and is supposed to be done from temp (the https://getcomposer.org/download/ thing)
[lundi 4 novembre 2019] [11:43:01 CET] <Jyhem> Did you get composer.phar in temp?
[lundi 4 novembre 2019] [11:43:18 CET] <s79535> Yes, and tiki now detected composer
[lundi 4 novembre 2019] [11:43:25 CET] <s79535> Thank you very much
[lundi 4 novembre 2019] [11:44:34 CET] <Jyhem> I have the feeling you should install the curl package on your computer. It's useful and some software expects it to be there
[lundi 4 novembre 2019] [11:45:15 CET] <Jyhem> Also, Tiki should improve the messages which are shown when this fails.
[lundi 4 novembre 2019] [11:45:20 CET] <Jyhem> You are welcome

I see more than one issue here.

First issue (solved): when curl is not found, there was no hint about what was wrong.
I added a line for informing about curl missing (revision 71422) but I don't know what went wrong for the PHPCLI thing.

Second issue: when curl is not found, Tiki attempts the following:

"${PHPCLI}" -r "eval('?>'.file_get_contents('https://getcomposer.org/installer'));" -- --install-dir=temp

Maybe someone with windows can improve the messages or the detection of PHP? And make this work on windows for people without CURL?
Or put some appropriate help messages for windows users?

This bug has been demonstrated on show2.tiki.org

Please demonstrate your bug on show2.tiki.org