Organizing Files in a Module Zip

Since a given module installation is defined by the manifest.php included in the zip it is basically up to each developer to decide how to package their module. This flexibility is great but can cause both confusion for new developers and for folks trying to understand what a module zip contains. For the latter, this could be end users who like to know every detail or it could be a developer who is taking on or contributing to someone else's module.

For this article we won't be recommending a full SugarCRM Module Standardization like has been done here: A Proposal for SugarCRM Module Standardization. Instead we are going to suggest one way of organizing and look to get your own suggestions on how to better organize modules.

In a manifest there basically 3 types of options that require files to be defined; copy, relationships, and the many different extensions (language, vardefs, layoutdefs, menu, etc). Due to the way they are used to install into SugarCRM it may make the most sense to separate them out into their own folders in a zip such as:

• /copy
• /extensions
• /relationships
• LICENSE.txt
• manifest.php

The copy and extensions directories would be broken down to mimic the module file structure in Sugar. For example:

• /copy
  /custom
  /modules
  /Accounts
  MyAwesome_logic_hook.php
  /modules
  /MyAwesomeModule
• /extensions
  /modules
  /Accounts
  /language
  /vardefs

Relationships would just contain the files that will eventually be copied over to the custom/metadata directory:

• /relationships
  MyAwesomeModule_AccountsMetaData.php

Here is how the manifest would then look like for these option definitions:

We'll continue to build on this idea of better organizing modules to include the other parts of a manifest definition. Have something you found that works well? Share it below!