Issues with switching to public as the default web root

[m-vo]

Affected version(s)

Contao 4.12?

Description

Detecting the use of web as public directory by checking if the resource exists on the filesystem might lead to unwanted behavior, see #3084 (comment).

I noticed the problem when creating a new project from a template/skeleton (now with 4.12):

• the project assumes web as the web root
• web, however, does not exist initially → public gets created on install
• webpack is run and outputs stuff into the now created web directory
• the symfony server is started and picks up public as the web root
• the cache is cleared after some work, now web exists and things break^*)

^*) because the contao.web_dir config setting now differs from the actual web root

The same thing will happen when deploying by copying a bare minimum and installing, i.e. without explicitly creating the web directory. There the website will stop working as no entry points will be at the expected location.

IMHO we should neither rely on the existence nor absence of the web directory but only on the config. I've also seen projects using web as their js/layout root. 🙈

What about this strategy instead?

• use extra.public-dir in the app's composer.json to set the public dir like Symfony does
• default config to web unless configured otherwise via composer.json (or config)
• ship the switch to public via the 4.12 managed edition composer.json, so that only new projects are affected

We could then ultimately change the default in Contao 5 and remove the composer.json config key again (as a BC break).

[leofeyer]

I don't think we should do any of this. Keep in mind that the logic only applies to the default value, therefore all of the problems mentioned above can be solved by adding contao.web_dir to your config.yml file.

[m-vo]

So if I'm installing Contao in a Symfony environment where I set my web root via the composer.json I need to add a config entry. Same if I am using a new 4.12 with public and later on I'll add a web folder - not knowing this would do any harm. I don't like that magic at all.

[m-vo]

related #3370

[leofeyer]

So if I'm installing Contao in a Symfony environment where I set my web root via the composer.json I need to add a config entry.

Yes. We have decided against using extra.public-dir from the composer.json file, which is why we have added a separate contao.web_dir parameter in the first place. I don't recall the exact reasons but I think it was because there is no way to add custom settings to the composer.json file yet.

Same if I am using a new 4.12 with public and later on I'll add a web folder - not knowing this would do any harm. I don't like that magic at all.

That is indeed something that we could reconsider, although I don't think many users will run into the issue. Any ideas how to improve it?

[m-vo]

Yes. We have decided against using extra.public-dir from the composer.json file, which is why we have added a separate contao.web_dir parameter in the first place. I don't recall the exact reasons but I think it was because there is no way to add custom settings to the composer.json file yet.

It wouldn't do any harm to support it now, would it? I'd read it once when parsing the config and only use the value if extra.public-dir is set and contao.web_dir is not set.

Any ideas how to improve it?

Only trust the config key: the usage would then be consistent at least and would be easier to debug. The auto-detection could still be in there when parsing the config value.

But like I said, I wouldn't try to detect folders at all. 🙈

[aschempp]

#3084 (comment) 🤷

[leofeyer]

As discussed in the Contao call on September 30th, we want to set contao.web_dir from extra.public-dir in the composer.json file and deprecate the parameter in the configuration tree.

[m-vo]

see #3535