Rename the web folder to public

[leofeyer]

Q	A
Fixed issues	Implements #1088
Docs PR or issue	contao/docs#776

This PR renames the web folder to public as discussed here: #1088 (comment)

@contao/developers How do we want to implement backwards compatibility? I see two options:

1. Add a check in the Configuration class: If contao.web_dir is public and there is no public folder but a web folder, change the value to web automatically.

2. Make the GenerateSymlinkCommand generate a symlink from public to web if a web folder exists.

I am in favor of solution no. 1, because I find having two different public folders confusing. WDYT?

[fritzmg]

Don't we need to solve #2461 first?

[leofeyer]

No:

As discussed in Mumble on March 11, it should work in Contao 4.9 if you set the web directory in both the composer.json and the app configuration. If this is not the case, we should fix it.

It seems to work though.

[aschempp]

Maybe we should change this default (once and for all) in Contao 5 only? That would probably solve a lot of potential headaches (including the Contao Manager).

[leofeyer]

We have already discussed this (see #1088 (comment)).

[leofeyer]

This PR is ready to merge. I have thoroughly tested the changes and made sure that the installation commands fall back to web if the directory exist. It therefore does not matter when the Contao Manager is adjusted to use public.

[aschempp]

This PR is ready to merge. I have thoroughly tested the changes and made sure that the installation commands fall back to web if the directory exist. It therefore does not matter when the Contao Manager is adjusted to use public.

did you also test this with the Contao Manager? e.g. if it is possible to manage an installation that uses the public dir?

[leofeyer]

The Contao Manager does not yet support anything but web, because there are hardcoded references to the name e.g. here: https://github.com/contao/contao-manager/blob/8d86a863d585d5d202c9dec85cb29d977f896ab9/api/ApiKernel.php#L261-L262 We will have to adjust this at some point in the future.

[aschempp]

Does that mean you cannot manage Contao 4.12 with the Contao Manager?

[leofeyer]

Of course not. 😄 You just have to use web instead of public.

[fritzmg]

A problem would arise if you install the Contao Manager after installing Contao via composer create-project. But other than that it should be fine, since the Contao Manager requires you to create a web directory.

[m-vo]

Now testing this, I'm wondering why we do not just rely on the config value here? IMHO the config should be the single point of truth once configured.

[m-vo]

I fear there is still something fishy with this change… 🐟

In an 4.12 installation where I did not configure anything, public was used as a web root but the contao.web_dir config key/parameter was still pointing to web. This for instance broke the back end as the combiner was getting the wrong directory until I explicitly configured it to %kernel.project_dir%/public.

I think there is another problem with detecting the old default by checking if the web directory exists: if you are using a deployment strategy that runs contao-setup on installation, no folders might exist beforehand. Your web root will now change. 😢

(https://contao.slack.com/archives/CK4J0KNDB/p1629567427484400)

[leofeyer]

It does work like a charm on contao.org, therefore I suggest you debug the problem and open a new issue if it turns out to be a Contao problem.

[fritzmg]

I am also unable to confirm the problem. After running composer create-project contao/managed-edition . 4.12.* a public folder was created and %contao.web_dir% properly points to that directory.

[fritzmg]

Ah I see what you mean now with deployments. That is indeed a problem, since this will break the live site after a deployment (because the deployment would not fail in that case). For our deployments it's not a problem since we usually have versioned files in the web/ directory anyway (like .htaccess files or other public resources). But if you don't need to version anything in web/ this will for sure break those deployments. Not sure how to solve this though?

[m-vo]

Not sure how to solve this though?

I think we can't auto detect the old state. Instead we IMHO should use a config key in the composer.json file that is read and that sets the config. Then we could safely introduce the change in a new version of contao/managed-edition without affecting old installations.