Install modules in the 'modules' folder instead of root.

This is not really a module, but more a proof of concept.

It might break things, but first attempts seem to work just fine.

I tested the silverstripe installer with a few modules and the build passed:

https://travis-ci.org/axyr/silverstripe-installer

https://github.com/axyr/silverstripe-installer

• axyr/silverstripe-adminlogin
• ajshort/silverstripe-gridfieldextensions
• unclecheese/display-logic

Please help me testing this with your own modules ! :)

As far as I can see, the only thing that needs to be changed is an extra check for an extra path in Requirements::path_for_file. To test this without touching core there is a ModuleRequirements_Backend that also search for requirements in MODULES_DIR

if(!Director::fileExists($fileOrUrl)) {
  $fileOrUrl = MODULES_DIR . '/' . $fileOrUrl;
}

##Composer

With composer you can set custom installer-paths for silverstripe-module types. To leave the cms and framework folder in the root you can force that as well.

Example:

{
	"name": "silverstripe/installer",
	"description": "The SilverStripe Framework Installer",
	"require": {
		"php": ">=5.3.2",
		"silverstripe/cms": "3.1.2",
		"silverstripe/framework": "3.1.2",
		"silverstripe-themes/simple": "*",
		"axyr/silverstripe-modulefolder": "*",
		"axyr/silverstripe-adminlogin": "*"
	},
	"config": {
		"process-timeout": 600	
	},
	"minimum-stability": "dev",
	"extra": {
		 "installer-paths": {
			"cms/": ["silverstripe/cms"],
			"framework/": ["silverstripe/framework"],
			"modules/": ["axyr/silverstripe-modulefolder"],
			"modules/{$name}/": ["type:silverstripe-module"]
		}
	}
}

This still leads to a code folder near th other modules in the modules folder, but that's something we can't avoid right now.

##Background

I like to have thirdparty modules living in their own folder and keep my own custom application code in mysite or maybe even a second folder with custom code.

Now that we have composer I install more modules which sometimes provide little functionality but can come in quite handy. I don't want all those small 'plugins' in my root folder.

I don't want to stir up the discussion again if we need this or something is wrong with the current 'all code in root folder' approach

There was a long debate in the Silverstripe 2.x era on the Google dev group:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/silverstripe-dev/6qdRkCDliEg/A3mH9kFhG6MJ

and

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/silverstripe-dev/on1_ABPDNTc

For now I just want to know if this is gonna work!