Directory structure

The skeleton installs five Composer packages. See framework and packages for their responsibilities and versions. Applications that enable modules also add the module layout described in modules.

A new FloCMS project is small. Here is what each folder is for. To see how these pieces work together on a request, read the request lifecycle.

The project root#

my-site/
├── api/            JSON API: routes.php, Controllers/, Resources/
├── commands/       Your own php flo commands (App\Commands)
├── config/         config.php, schedule.php and bootstrap.php
├── controllers/    Page controllers (FloCMS\Controllers)
├── database/       migrations/ and seeders/
├── includes/       Startup helpers: maintenance mode, class aliases (compat.php)
├── lang/           Translations: en.php, ar.php, ku.php
├── models/         Models (FloCMS\Models)
├── public/         The web root: index.php, api.php, themes/, uploads/
├── storage/        Logs, cache and framework state (not in Git)
├── support/        Application classes such as LoginThrottle (FloCMS\Support)
├── templates/      Layouts, partials and error pages per template
├── tests/          PHPUnit tests
├── vendor/         Composer packages (not in Git)
├── views/          One folder of views per controller
├── .env            Your environment settings (not in Git)
├── composer.json   Packages, pinned to exact versions
└── flo             The command-line launcher: php flo

public/#

public/ is the only folder the web server should serve. Point your domain's document root at it.

• index.php handles every page request.
• api.php handles /api/v1/... requests.
• conf_global.php defines constants every request uses, such as ACTIVE_LANG and VIEWS_PATH.
• themes/<template>/ holds CSS, JavaScript, images and fonts. In templates, link to them with template_asset('css/style.css').
• uploads/ receives uploaded files.

controllers/, models/ and views/#

A page is a controller action plus a view:

• controllers/BlogController.php handles /blog.
• views/blog/index.html is the view for its index() action.
• models/BlogModel.php talks to the database.

php flo make:route Blog creates all three. See controllers and views.

templates/#

Each template is a folder, and APP_TEMPLATE in .env picks the active one. A template can override any file of the default template; files it doesn't have come from default.

templates/default/
├── layouts/    default.html (site) and admin.html (admin panel)
├── partials/   Pieces you include in layouts
├── errors/     403, 404, 500, 503 and database error pages
└── offline.html

storage/#

storage/ holds files the application writes: logs/, cache/ and framework/ (maintenance mode and scheduler state). The web server must be able to write to it, and to views/cache/, where compiled templates go. php flo storage:check --fix checks and creates these folders.