Version 3 end of life
This version of Silverstripe CMS will not recieve any additional bug fixes or documentation updates. Go to documentation for the most recent stable version.

Directory Structure

Introduction

The directory-structure in SilverStripe it built on "convention over configuration", so the placement of some files and directories is meaningful to its logic.

Core Structure

DirectoryDescription
assets/Contains images and other files uploaded via the SilverStripe CMS. You can also place your own content inside it, and link to it from within the content area of the CMS.
cms/Contains all the files that form the CMS area of your site. It’s structure is similar to the mysite/ directory, so if you find something interesting, it should be easy enough to look inside and see how it was built.
framework/The framework that builds both your own site and as the CMS that powers it. You’ll be utilising files in this directory often, both directly and indirectly.

Custom Code Structure

We're using <mysite> as an example - arbitrary directory-names are allowed, as long as they don't collide with existing modules or the directories lists in "Core Structure".

DirectoryDescription
<mysite>/This directory contains all of your code that defines your website.
<mysite>/_configYAML configuration specific to your application
<mysite>/codePHP code for model and controller (subdirectories are optional)
<mysite>/templatesHTML templates with *.ss-extension
<mysite>/cssCSS files
<mysite>/imagesImages used in the HTML templates
<mysite>/javascriptJavascript and other script files

Themes Structure

themes/simple/Standard "simple" theme
themes/yourtheme/The themes folder can contain more than one theme - here's your own

See themes

Module Structure

Modules are currently top-level folders that have a _config.php file or a _config/ directory present. They should follow the same conventions as posed in "Custom Site Structure"

Example Forum:

DirectoryDescription
forum/This directory contains all of your code that defines your website.
forum/codePHP code for model and controller (subdirectories are optional)
......

modules folder

Module documentation

Module developers can bundle developer documentation with their code by producing plain text files inside a 'docs' folder located in the module folder. These files can be written with the Markdown syntax (See Contributing Documentation) and include media such as images or videos.

Inside the docs folder, developers should organise the markdown files into each separate language they wish to write documentation for (usually just en). Inside each languages' subfolder, developers then have freedom to create whatever structure they wish for organising the documentation they wish.

Example Forum Documentation:

DirectoryDescription
forum/docsThe docs folder will be picked up by the documentation viewer.
forum/docs/_manifest_excludeEmpty file to signify that SilverStripe does not need to load classes from this folder
forum/docs/en/English documentation
forum/docs/en/index.mdDocumentation homepage. Should provide an introduction and links to remaining docs
forum/docs/en/Getting_Started.mdDocumentation page. Naming convention is Uppercase and underscores.
forum/docs/en//_images/Folder to store any images or media
forum/docs/en/Some_Topic/You can organise documentation into nested folders. Naming convention is Uppercase and underscores.
forum/docs/en/04_Some_Topic/00_Getting_Started.mdStructure is created by use of numbered prefixes. This applies to nested folders and documentations pages, index.md should not have a prefix.

Autoloading

SilverStripe recursively detects classes in PHP files by building up a manifest used for autoloading, as well as respecting Composer's built-in autoloading for libraries. This means in most cases, you don't need to worry about include paths or require() calls in your own code - after adding a new class, simply regenerate the manifest by using a flush=1 query parameter. See the "Manifests" documentation for details.

Best Practices

Making /assets readonly

See Secure coding