Folder structure of a PHP MVC framework… am I doing this right?

Question

I'm currently working on my own PHP Framework, and I need some help figuring out if I'm going in the right direction or not...

The framework is both for my own use and to generally advance my PHP skills further. I've encountered numerous problems that by overcoming them I have learned a great deal, and love being able to create something from nothing, so I'd rather not see answers like "Just use Zend"! ;)

I have read a bunch of articles both on Stack Overflow and a bunch of other sites, but can't quite get the right answer I need, so hopefully someone can give me some helpful advice!

I've tried a few different solutions, but I've just ended up confusing myself and I'm not sure which direction to go now! Can't quite get my head around it all...

'Theoretical' framework structure

- .htaccess
- index.php
- private/
    - app/
        - bootstrap.php
        - modules/
            - default/
                - controllers/
                    - pages.php
                    - index.php
                - models/
                - views/
            - admin/
                - controllers/
                - models/
                - views/
    - config/
        - config.php
        - autoloader.php
    - lib/
        - Some_Library
            - Class1
                - class1.php
            - Class2
                - class2.php
- public/
    - css
    - images
    - scripts

Details

• index.php is the main file, where every request is routed to with .htaccess.
• private/ can't be accessed publicly, obviously.
• public/ contains all the public files.
• app/ contains all app-specific code.
• lib/ could contain Zend or another library (I'm also working on my own), to be called with autoloaders
• bootstrap.php is the app-specific code... Do I need this? is the main 'index.php' enough?.
• modules/ would contain each module... Do I need modules at all?.
• default/ is the default module that will contain the MVC's for most requests (used when 'admin' isn't the first part of the URL).
• admin/ is the module that will contain the MVC's for the admin section.

Anyways, to my question...

I thought it would be better to separate the admin section from the rest of the website, but that's where I'm getting stuck. I have made the above structure to work with it, but I'm not sure if this is the most effective way.

If a request site.com/videos/view/1/ comes to my site..

Module: Default Controller: Videos Action: View Params: array( '1' )

and if the request site.com/admin/pages/view/1/ comes to my site..

Module: Admin Controller: Pages Action: View Params: array( '1' )

Is this the right way to go about this? Or am I over-complicating it and doing something that's not worth doing?

Should I have a completely separate application framework for my admin section...? Do I even need to separate the admin section's MVC's from the rest of it all?

Sorry for the massive question, just wanted to give you as much info as possible! Feel free to answer whichever part you can =P

Answer 1

One Solution for admin routing is what CakePHP does, you first define a configuration for the admin string and then in your controller use actions with a specific naming convertion

//Configuration ============================
Configure::write("admin_routing" , true );
Configure::write("admin_prefix"  , "admin" );

//Controller ===============================
class MyController extends AppController{

    function index(){
      //Will map to /mycontroller/
    }


    function admin_index(){
      //Will map to /admin/mycontroller/
    }

}

You can generalize this by using a routing system just look how your favorite framework does it

On another note

1. The modules folder seems to be unecesary
2. I agree with antpaw you should add a globals view and model folder in order to share them across applications
3. I don't get why autoloader is inside the config directory and not as part of the lib directory, you can also just move the boostrap.php to the config directory

Hope this helps

Answer 2

I know this was asked a long time ago, but I was in the exact same situation a few days ago.

The asker's proposed solution is basically what I went with, oddly enough. Basically, I borrowed a concept from ASP.NET MVC2 called "areas". Areas are sections of the site that have their own controllers and view (also models, but I don't know why ... models should generally be universal). So this is very similar to your initial idea.

In any case following their folder+routing structure made quite a lot of sense for my application (admin type area, a users area, and another level in between). Take a look at it and you might find some success there.

My routing just takes into account areas. The routes are hard coded, so if I need another area I just adjust my routing file. Oh also, my autoloaders are set to look in the area folder if $area is specified.

/admin/team/add/ is read as, Area: Admin, Controller: team, Action: add

whereas

/team/add/ would read as, Area: [none], Controller: team, Action: add

Folder structure kinda like this:

app/
   areas/
      admin/
          controllers/
          views/
      staff/
          controllers/
          views/
   controllers/
   models/
   views/

Answer 3

i would suggest you to use a bootstrap.php that manages all the routings so you never run into issues like "i wish i could nest one folder more into my admin module".

i also wouldnt use modules and keep the default controllers right inside the controller/ dir and the admin controllers inside the controller/admin dir. same for models and views.

btw its really not clever not to share the models between different parts of your application, they are going to be the same in 99% of all cases. thats why mvc is so powerful. sometimes you even can share some of the view parts inside your app between the front- and backend.