I made button down in an attempt to learn how to separate functionality, layout and content. I was inspired by the organizational hierarchy of Jekyll and wanted to see if I could do something similar with PHP--removing the export to static, feature of course--but what the hell, right?

Thread (or _thread.php) brings the whole thing together. It contains all of the functions that deliver modular elements and handles functionality (like the form handler script). The way it works is that thread is simply pulled in each file. Variables that are defined get converted into global variables that are used in various functions.

The file structure is basic. Files are arranged just as they would be on a static site. My preference is to have directories that contain index.php files (to create a cleaner URL strings), but it's totally up to the you. Each file in the system contains a PHP header that defines variables pertaining to content and layout. The header also pulls in the thread (controller). The header, footer and other modular elements are pulled in as function calls.

Layouts are determined by a variable defined in the PHP header of each page. The top and bottom of each layout exist in the _layouts directory that determines the name of the layout. top.php and bttm.php are each called from the includes/header.php and includes/footer.php respectively. These layout submodules separate the layouts from the header, footer and other includes in the _includes directory. This way, content, meta tags, links, and analytics information is kept clean and separate from the code that determines the layout.