[[installation]]
== Installation

Elasticsearch-php can be used starting from PHP 7.4.
To install the library you need to use http://getcomposer.org[composer] with the
following command:

[source,shell]
--------------------------
composer require elasticsearch/elasticsearch
--------------------------

If you don't have composer you can install it as follows:

[source,shell]
--------------------------
curl -s http://getcomposer.org/installer | php
php composer.phar install
--------------------------

More information about 
https://getcomposer.org/[Composer can be found at their website].

When you have installed elasticsearch-php you can start using it
with the `Client` class. You can use the `ClientBuilder` class to
create this object, as follows:

[source,php]
--------------------------
require 'vendor/autoload.php';

$client = Elastic\Elasticsearch\ClientBuilder::create()->build();
--------------------------
+
Client instantiation is performed with a static helper function `create()`. This 
creates a ClientBuilder object, which helps you to set custom configurations. 
When you are done configuring, call the `build()` method to generate a `Client` 
object. For further info, consult the <<configuration>> section.
