Yii2 framework uses and stratifies its application structure into different subdirectories and files in the root of the application.
Yii2 folder structure
Yii2 framework uses following subdirectories as the top level directories in the root of the application -- backend- it is used to manage the whole application system as site administrators
- frontend- it is used to show the main interfaces to end users.
- console- it consists of the console commands needed by the application system.
- common- whose content or files are shared among the above applications i.e. files common to all applications.
- environments- represents environment configs eg. development or production mode related.
- vendor- represents place for third party modules and Yii2 source files itself.
Yii2 framework root directory uses a set of files as below -
- .gitignore- contains a list of directories ignored by git version system. If you need something never get to your source code repository, add it there.
- composer.json - Composer config described in Configuring Composer.
- init - initialization script described in Configuration and environments.
- init.bat - same for Windows.
- LICENSE.md - license info. Put your project license there. Especially when opensourcing.
- README.md - basic info about installing template. Consider replacing it with information about your project and its installation.
- requirements.php - Yii requirements checker.
- yii - console application bootstrap.
- yii.bat - same for Windows.
The frontend and backend both have these directories -
- components- contains components (e.g. helpers, widgets) that are only used by this application
- config- contains the configuration used by the application
- controllers- contains controller classes
- lib- contains third-party libraries that are only used by this application
- models- contains model classes that are specific for the application
- runtime- stores dynamically generated files
- views- stores controller actions view scripts
- web- the web root for this application
Yii2 advanced template
There are three applications in the advanced template -
- frontend - It is usually what is presented to the end user, the project itself.
- backend - It is an administration panel, analytics and similar functions.
- console - The console is typically used for cron jobs and low-level server administration. It is also used when deploying applications and handles migrations and assets. The directory structure for the console is slightly different because it doesn't need controllers, views, and www. Instead, it contains a command directory to store all console command class files.
Frontend and backend are web applications and both contain a web directory. This is the webroot you should point your webserver to.
There is also a common directory that contains files used by more than one application like, a user model. A common directory contains files that are shared between applications. For example, each application may need to access a database using ActiveRecord. Therefore, Yii can store the AR model classes in a common directory. Similarly, if some helper or widget classes are used in more than one application, Yii also file them under common to avoid code duplication. To make code easier to maintain, Yii organizes a common directory into a structure similar to that of an application. For example, it has components, models, library, etc.
Because applications can also share some configurations. Therefore, Yii also stores common configurations in the config directory in the common folder. Yii also uses the DB migration feature to track database changes for large projects with a long development cycle. DB saves all migrations in the migrations directory in a common folder.
The following image represents the full directory structure for Yii2 advance template "Yii2 advanced structure" -
Predefined path aliases for accessing the Yii directory structure
Yii uses the aliases specific to the directory structure of the advanced application. The following are the list of few aliases -
- @yii - framework directory.
- @app - base path of currently running application.
- @common - common directory.
- @frontend - frontend web application directory.
- @backend - backend web application directory.
- @console - console directory.
- @runtime - runtime directory of currently running web application.
- @vendor - Composer vendor directory.
- @bower - vendor directory that contains the bower packages.
- @npm - vendor directory that contains npm packages.
- @web - base URL of currently running web application.
- @webroot - web root directory of currently running web application.
You can get the path of a 'path alias' using the codes at any view file in frontend or backend using the codes as like - "echo Yii::getalias('@app');", "echo Yii::getalias('@web');". The following are the list of aliases with uses code sample -
- @app: Your application root directory (either frontend or backend or console depending on where you access it from)
<?php echo Yii::getalias('@app'); ?> //It will produce - C:\xampp\htdocs\yii2projectname\frontend - @vendor: Your vendor directory on your root app install directory
<?php echo Yii::getalias('@vendor'); ?> //It will produce - C:\xampp\htdocs\yii2projectname\vendor - @runtime: Your application files runtime/cache storage folder
<?php echo Yii::getalias('@runtime'); ?> //It will produce - C:\xampp\htdocs\yii2projectname\frontend\runtime - @web: Your application base url path
<?php echo Yii::getalias('@web'); ?> //It will produce - /yii2projectname/frontend/web - @webroot: Your application web root
<?php echo Yii::getalias('@webroot'); ?> //It will produce - C:/xampp/htdocs/yii2projectname/frontend/web - @common: Alias for your common root folder on your root app install directory
<?php echo Yii::getalias('@common'); ?> //It will produce - C:\xampp\htdocs\yii2projectname\common - @frontend: Alias for your frontend root folder on your root app install directory
<?php echo Yii::getalias('@frontend'); ?> //It will produce - C:\xampp\htdocs\yii2projectname\frontend - @backend: Alias for your backend root folder on your root app install directory
<?php echo Yii::getalias('@backend'); ?> //It will produce - C:\xampp\htdocs\yii2projectname\backend - @console: Alias for your console root folder on your root app install directory
<?php echo Yii::getalias('@console'); ?> //It will produce - C:\xampp\htdocs\yii2projectname\console - @yii, the directory where the BaseYii.php file is located (also called the framework directory).
<?php echo Yii::getalias('@yii'); ?> //It will produce - C:\xampp\htdocs\yii2cms2022\vendor\yiisoft\yii2 - @bower, the root directory that contains bower packages. Defaults to @vendor/bower.
<?php echo Yii::getalias('@bower'); ?> //It will produce - C:\xampp\htdocs\yii2cms2022/vendor/bower-asset - @npm, the root directory that contains npm packages. Defaults to @vendor/npm.
<?php echo Yii::getalias('@npm'); ?> //It will produce - C:\xampp\htdocs\yii2cms2022/vendor/npm-asset
Yii application structure overview
Yii applications are organized according to the model-view-controller (MVC) architectural design pattern as explained below -
- Models - It represents data, business logic, and rules
- Views - These are output representations of models
- Controllers - It takes input and translate it into commands for models and views
In addition to MVC, Yii applications also have the following entities -
- entry scripts: are PHP scripts that are directly accessible to end users. They are responsible for initiating the request processing cycle.
- application: these are globally accessible objects that manage application components and coordinate them to fulfill requests.
- application components: they are objects registered with applications and provide various services to fulfill requests. For example - yii\swiftmailer\Mailer: supports mail composing and sending, session - represents the session information, urlManager, user - represents the user authentication information, view - supports view rendering, etc.
- modules: these are separate packages that contain complete MVC by themselves. The modules are often viewed as mini-applications. Modules differ from applications in that modules cannot be deployed alone and must reside within applications. For example - forum module. The following is the sample folder structure of the forum module -
forum/ Module.php the module class file controllers/ containing controller class files DefaultController.php the default controller class file models/ containing model class files views/ containing controller view and layout files layouts/ containing layout view files default/ containing view files for DefaultController index.php the index view file - filters: represent the code that needs to be called before and after each request is actually processed by the controllers. Yii provides a set of commonly used filters, found primarily under the yii\filters namespace. For example - AccessControl, HttpBasicAuth, HttpCache, PageCache, VerbFilter, Cors, etc.
- widgets: are objects that can be inserted into views. They can contain controller logic and can be reused in different views. For example - a date picker widget
FAQ - Frequently Asked Question
Is Yii a good framework?
Yes it is a good framework. It is a secure, fast and efficient widly used PHP framework.
Is yii2 an MVC?
Yes, Yii2 is a PHP framework based on the MVC design pattern. The MVC design pattern is used to separate business logic from user interface considerations so that developers can more easily change each part without affecting the other.
Is yii2 better than Laravel?
It depends on the project requirement that you want to use. While Laravel can be used for building a web application of any complexity and any type of business, Yii works better for creating web applications with high traffic flow, real-time applications and web applications which have admin panels or dashboards.
Best Books for Web Development in PHP
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PHP Web Development with Laminas
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Getting started with CodeIgniter 4
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Book details
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