Radiate Framework

Directory Structure

Introduction

The default application structure is intended to provide a great starting point for both large and small applications. Radiate imposes almost no restrictions on where any given class is located - as long as Composer can autoload the class.

The theme and plugin directories have been implemented almost identically to allow for less cognitive load when switching between plugin and theme development. There are some exceptions however, and these are down to the way WordPress implements themes and plugins differently.

The following structure is from a Radiate theme, but the plugin will follow the same structure, less a few files in the root.
.
├── app/
│   └── Providers/
│       ├── EventServiceProvider.php
│       ├── RouteServiceProvider.php
│       ├── ThemeServiceProvider.php
│       └── WordPressServiceProvider.php
├── config/
├── routes/
│   ├── ajax.php
│   └── api.php
├── vendor/
├── composer.json
├── functions.php
├── helpers.php
├── index.php
├── LICENSE
├── package.json
├── README.md
├── screenshot.png
└── style.css

The Root Directory

The App Directory

The app directory is where the core of your application will be located. We'll explore the app directory in more detail further on. This directory is where most of your classes will be located. Classes in the app directory are namespaced Theme or Plugin as per the project type.

The Config Directory

As the name suggests, the config directory contains all the framework configuration files. These files handle the configurations that aren't handled by WordPress, for example, where to store your template files.

The Routes Directory

The routes directory is where your AJAX and REST routes are registered.

  • ajax.php

    This is where the AJAX routes are registered. They automatically have the ajax middleware applied. For more information about Radiate's routing, see The default route files.

  • api.php

    This is where the REST API routes are registered. They are automatically namespaced and have the api middleware applied.

The Vendor Directory

The vendor directory contains your composer dependencies.

The Root Files

The Radiate Theme and Plugin both contain a few files in the root directory, but files of note are:

  • functions.php

    The entry point for themes and plugins. This is where Radiate registers the middleware and service providers before booting.

  • helpers.php

    Add any application helper functions here. This file is autoloaded by Composer. Radiate doesn't use helper functions as they can cause conflicts with other themes or plugins running on your site. We recommend namespacing your helper functions to avoid this issue.

The App Directory In Detail

The majority of your application is housed in the app directory. By default, this directory is namespaced under Theme and Plugin and is autoloaded by Composer using the PSR-4 autoloading standard.

The app directory contains a Providers directory by default. This directory contains your application service providers such as the EventServiceProvider where your WordPress actions/filters can be declared, and the RouteServiceProvider where your REST and AJAX routes can be configured.

A variety of other directories will be generated inside the app directory as you use the make Radiate commands to generate classes. So, for example, the app/Mail directory will not exist until you execute the make:mail Radiate command to generate a mail class.

Many of the classes in the app directory can be generated by Radiate via the wp-cli. To review the available commands, run the wp radiate list command in your terminal.

Console

The Console directory contains any custom Radiate commands that you create. The directory does not exist by default, but will be created for you by the make:command Radiate command.

Events

The Events directory does not exist by default, but will be created for you by the make:event Radiate command.

Http

The Http directory contains your controllers and middleware. Almost all of the logic to handle REST and AJAX requests entering your application will be placed in this directory.

Listeners

This directory does not exist by default, but will be created for you if you execute the make:listener and make:subscriber Radiate commands. The Listeners directory contains the classes that handle your events. Events extend WordPress actions and filters which helps keep all action/filter logic in one place.

Mail

This directory does not exist by default, but will be created for you if you execute the make:mail Radiate command. The Mail directory contains all of your classes that represent emails sent by your application.

Providers

The Providers directory contains all of the service providers for your application. Service providers bootstrap your application by binding services in the service container, registering events, or performing any other tasks to prepare your application for incoming requests.

Rules

The Rules directory contains custom validation rules generated with the make:rule Radiate command. This directory doesn't exist by default.

WordPress

The WordPress directory contains the classes that register functionality in WordPress. This directory doesn't exist by default, but will be created when executing make:post-type, make:taxonomy or make:shortcode Radiate commands.