symfony - Composer update: The requested PHP extension ext-http missing

Question

I am creating a php website using the symfony framework and composer.

• Operating system: Windows 10
• PHP version: 7.3.2
• Symfony: 4.2.3 (env: dev, debug: true)
• Composer: 1.8.4 (2019-02-11)

When I try to do compose update inside the projects folder or when I try to install a bundle using composer require symfony/swiftmailer-bundle I get the following error:

Your requirements could not be resolved to an installable set of packages.

  Problem 1
    - The requested PHP extension ext-http * is missing from your system.
      Install or enable PHP's http extension.

(It says 'Problem 1', but it is the only problem listed.)

I already looked for the extension in my php.ini file, but I can't find it. Do I need to install an extension manually? If so, where can I find it?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

The solution is found. For some reason my composer.json contained "ext-http": "*".

"require": {
    "ext-http": "*"
}

Removing this line fixed the problem. I don't know why it contained "ext-http": "*" and I don't fully understand why removing it would fix the problem. (Is it because it is looking for the extension, but can not find it?)

(Thank you to everyone trying to help me fix the problem!)

Update: It might be worth looking at the other answers too. I'm no longer using PHP so I can't check the correctness of these new answers.