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File structure

Dotkernel API follows the PSR-4 standards.

It is a good practice to standardize the file structure of projects.

When using Dotkernel API, the following structure is installed by default:

Dotkernel API File Structure!

Special purpose folders

  • .github - Contains GitHub workflow files
  • .laminas-ci - Contains laminas-ci workflow files

bin folder

This folder contains:

  • clear-config-cache.php - Removes the config cache file data/cache/config-cache.php; available only when development mode is enabled
  • cli.php - Used to build console applications based on laminas-cli
  • doctrine - Used by the doctrine fixtures to populate the database tables

config folder

This folder contains all application-related config files:

  • cli-config.php - Command line interface configuration used by migrations, fixtures, crons
  • config.php - Registers ConfigProviders for installing packages
  • container.php - Main service container that provides access to all registered services
  • development.config.php.dist - Activates debug mode; gets symlinked as development.config.php when enabling development mode
  • migrations.php - Configuration for database migration, like migration file location and table to save the migration log
  • pipeline.php - Contains a list of middlewares, in the order of their execution
  • twig-cs-fixer.php - Configuration file for Twig code style checker/fixer

config/autoload folder

This folder contains all service-related local and global config files:

  • authorization.global.php - Configures access per route for user roles
  • cli.global.php - Configures cli
  • content-negotiation.global.php - Configures request and response formats
  • cors.local.php.dist - Configures Cross-Origin Resource Sharing, like call origin, headers, cookies
  • dependencies.global.php - Sets global dependencies that should be accessible by all modules
  • development.local.php.dist - Gets symlinked as development.local.php when enabling development mode; activates error handlers
  • doctrine.global.php - Configuration used by Object–relational mapping
  • error-handling.global.php - Configures and activates error logs
  • local.php.dist - Local configuration file where you can overwrite application name and URL
  • local.test.php.dist - Local configuration for functional tests
  • mail.local.php.dist - Mail configuration; e.g. sendmail vs smtp, message configuration, mail logging
  • mezzio.global.php - Mezzio core config file
  • mezzio-tooling-factories.global.php Add or remove factory definitions
  • response-header.global.php - Defines headers per route
  • templates.global.php - dotkernel/dot-twigrenderer config file

data folder

This folder is a storage for project data files and service caches. It contains these folders:

  • cache - Cache for e.g. Twig files
  • doctrine - Database migrations and fixtures
  • oauth - Encryption, private and public keys needed for authentication
  • lock - Contains lock files generated by dotkernel/dot-cli

AVOID storing sensitive data on the repository!

log folder

This folder stores daily log files. When you access the application from the browser, (if not already created) a new log file gets created in the format specified in the config/autoload/error-handling.global.php config file under the stream array key.

public folder

This folder contains all publicly available assets and serves as the entry point of the application:

  • uploads - Normally contains files uploaded via the application
  • .htaccess - Server configuration file used by Apache web server; it enables the URL rewrite functionality
  • index.php - The application's main entry point
  • robots.txt.dist - A sample robots.txt file that allows/denies bot access to certain areas of your application; activate it by duplicating the file as robots.txt and comment out the lines that don't match your environment

src folder

This folder contains a separate folder for each Module.

These are the modules included by default:

  • Admin - Contains functionality for managing users with admin role; note these are users save in the admin database table
  • App - Contains core functionality, from authentication, to rendering, to error reporting
  • User - Contains functionality for managing regular users

Module contents

Each Module folder, in turn, should contain the following folders, unless they are empty:

  • src/Handler - Action classes (similar to Controllers but can only perform one action)
  • src/Entity - Used by database entities
  • src/Service - Service classes
  • src/Repository - Entity repository folder

The above example is just some of the folders a project may include, but they should give you an idea about the recommended structure. Other classes the src folder may include are InputFilter, EventListener, Helper, Command, Factory etc.

The src folder in each Module folder normally also contains these files:

  • ConfigProvider.php - Configuration data for the module
  • OpenAPI.php - Detailed descriptions for each endpoint in the OpenAPI format
  • RoutesDelegator.php - Module specific route registrations

templates folder in Modules

This folder contains the template files, used for example to help render e-mail templates.

twig is used as Templating Engine. All template files have the extension .html.twig