Following the amazing work @david-snopek posted(blog post - CiviCRM & D8), I spent the better part of last evening trying to get CiviCRM up and running on a Drupal 8.4 BLT project.

After trying a few different approaches, unfortunately I'm now seeing the following error when trying to enable the CiviCRM Core Module

CiviCRM must be downloaded into the libraries folder.

No matter what I try, I can't seem to get the module to recognize that civicrm is installed.

#Other things I've tried:

1. manually copying the [project_root]/vendor/civicrm-core into [project_root]/docroot/libraries/civicrm-core
2. Renaming libraries/civicrm-coreto libraries/civicrm
3. Modifying composer.json to try and install CiviCRM into the libraries folder:
4. Creating symbolic links to the folder (my least favorite attempt)

Here is the composer.json update for number 3 above:

    "require": {
    "acquia/blt": "^8.3",
    "phpoffice/PHPWord": "dev-zend-version as 0.13.0",
    "civicrm/civicrm-core": "4.7.25"
},

...

"repositories": {
    "phpword": {
        "type": "vcs",
        "url": "https://github.com/dsnopek/PHPWord.git"
    },
    "zetacomponents-mail": {
        "type": "vcs",
        "url": "https://github.com/civicrm/zetacomponents-mail.git"
    },
    "civicrm": {
        "type": "package",
        "package": {
            "name": "civicrm/civicrm-core",
            "version": "4.7.25",
            "type": "drupal-library",
            "source": {
                "url": "https://github.com/civicrm/civicrm-core.git",
                "type": "git",
                "reference": "origin/master"
           }
        }
    }
}

source: https://gist.github.com/mortenson/a5390d99013b5b8c0254081e89bb4d47

I think this has to do with an autoloader issue perhaps seeing that BLT does not use the drupal composer.json file and the instructions @david-snopek posted were for the traditional Drupal installation method.

I was able to trace the error to modules/custom/civicrm-drupal/civicrm.install:125

/**
 * Returns the path to where CiviCRM is installed.
 *
 * @return string|void
 *
 * Recommended location for civicrm is in /libraries/civicrm [citation needed].
 * We also allow /modules/civicrm, which seems to work fine.
 */
function _civicrm_find_civicrm() {
  if ($path = drupal_get_path('module', 'civicrm')) {
    if (file_exists($path . '/CRM/Core/ClassLoader.php')) {
      return \Drupal::service('file_system')->realpath($path);
    }
  }

  $path = 'vendor/civicrm/civicrm-core';
  if (file_exists($path . '/CRM/Core/ClassLoader.php')) {
    return \Drupal::service('file_system')->realpath($path);
  }

  return NULL;
}

#Notes on my process:

I ran into a couple snags with the Gist David posted.

1. When running $ composer require 'phpoffice/PHPWord:dev-zend-version as 0.13.0', I noticed that composer was trying to add the dependency as:

    "require": {
        "phpoffice/PHPWord": "dev-zend-version",
        "as 0.13.0"
    },

This failed but I was able to get past the issue by manually adding the dependency to the composer.json file as:

    "require": {
        "acquia/blt": "^8.3",
        "phpoffice/PHPWord": "dev-zend-version as 0.13.0",
    },

Unfortunately, I then got stuck on the next step requiring civicrm-core until I read the comment a bit closer. I believe this step is now incorrect as civicrm-core 4.7.25 has been released.

#Require civicrm-core at the requested version.
#TODO: Need to keep using my fork until 4.7.25 is released!
#composer require civicrm/civicrm-core:$CIVICRM_VERSION
composer require "civicrm/civicrm-core:dev-roundearth-$CIVICRM_VERSION as $CIVICRM_VERSION"

I was able to get past that issue by updating the additional repository via: composer config repositories.civicrm-core vcs https://github.com/civicrm/civicrm-core.git

Reference: https://www.mydropwizard.com/blog/how-install-civicrm-drupal-8-and-why-choose-it-over-pure-drupal-crm