Directory Structure

It is not usually a good idea to have all the files for an application sitting in the same directory/folder as this can quickly become unmanageable. Instead it is considered to be good practice to split the files across several directories, with a different directory for a different category of file.

On a web server all the files within or under the 'www' directory (known as the web root) are accessible via a URL which is passed to that web server. The directory structure which I use is as follows:

The INCLUDES directory should be moved outside of the [document root] folder so that it cannot be accessed via any URL. It is used to hold standard files used by the framework. It should be the first directory which is specified in the INCLUDE_PATH directive following '.;' (which signifies the current directory).

You may group the directories under the [document root] under another directory, such as "radicore", if that [document root] is already being used by another application, such as a public-facing website.

The DEFAULT directory is used to hold samples of all the files and scripts that will be used in the development of an application. The contents of this directory will be copied to the new subsystem directory when the Build Subsystem task is run. It has the following set of standard subdirectories:

• CLASSES - for all database table classes.
• REPORTS - for all report structure files, with a separate subdirectory for each language (refer to Appendix O).
• SCREENS - for all screen structure files, with a separate subdirectory for each language (refer to Appendix O).
• SQL - holds the export files created by Export Subsystem and Export Database functions. It is also used to hold all SQL statements which are generated by the framework (refer to Update Session to see how to turn this option on).
• TEXT - holds message text, header and footer text, form titles and field labels for each application. Note that there is a separate subdirectory for each language (refer to Appendix O).
• XSL - for any customised XSL stylesheets and templates. When loading a stylesheet for a transformation this directory will be examined first - if the file does not exist here it will be loaded from the [document root]/xsl directory instead. This directory may also be used to create copies of the XML documents which are generated during the execution of each script (refer to Update Session to see how to turn this option on).
• The REPORTS, SCREENS, and TEXT directories contain a separate subdirectory for each different language, where the directory name is the language code. Each language subdirectory should contain files with the same names, just different contents. Note that the library of locale data which is available within your operating system may define language codes in the format 'xx-XX', but when Radicore uses language codes for directory names it will use the format 'xx_xx' (all lower-case characters, with '_' (underscore) instead of '-' (hyphen)).

It also contains the following scripts which may be altered as required:

• INCLUDE.RESTRICTED_KEYWORDS.INC to identify any records on lookup tables which should not be deleted.
• INCLUDE.SUBSYSTEM.INC to dynamically modify the INCLUDE_PATH directive should any part of this subsystem need to reference a file in another subsystem.
• STYLE_CUSTOM.CSS to override any settings in the css/default.css file.

Other subdirectories may be added if required, but none of the default directories should be removed.

The MENU directory holds the files for the Menu and Security system.

The AUDIT directory holds the files for the Audit Logging system.

The DICT directory holds the files for the Data Dictionary.

The WORKFLOW directory holds the files for the Workflow Engine.

The CSS directory holds a collection of CSS files which allow the appearance of all web pages in the application to be set to a predefined theme or style. The user can choose from the available themes by running the Update Session screen.

The ERROR_LOGS directory holds the errorlog.html which is created by the error handler. This directory may need to be password protected as the error log will contain the output from debug_backtrace() which may contain sensitive data such as database login details.

The IMAGES directory holds all standard images used by the framework.

The LOGS directory holds the files created by background tasks. The contents can be viewed using the Show Batch Log File task.

The XSL directory is used to hold the standard XSL stylesheets and templates.