Using HTML5 Boilerplate Build script with a PHP framework

Question

I’m a big fan of the popular HTML5 Boilerplate. I’d love to use the build script to minifiy etc, but I can’t figure out how to get everything working together. To add further fun, I deploy using Git – no FTP.

Paul Irish’s video on using the build script is great, and at the end he shows a way to deploy on a server, then use .htaccess to reroot traffic from .com/ to .com/published/site/ – however that doesn’t really work when you’ve got a webapp and you’re using views. It’s also a really bad habit to put any code in public_html.

So here’s the structure I’m after of the deployed and built site:

- webapp
   - app
      - classes
          - welcome.php
      - views
          - template.php
   - framework
- public_html
   - index.php
   - css
   - js
   - img

But it needs to:

• Be still able to develop locally, without having to build every time!
• Be Gitable – deploy to server, then build
• Minify and read views from webapp

My first attempt ended up like this:

- webapp
   - app
      - classes
          - welcome.php
      - views
          - template.php
   - framework
- public_html
   - index.php
   - css (minified)
   - js (minified)
   - img (minified)
- dev_html
   - index.php
   - build
          - etc...
   - css
   - js
   - img

Then I published back up, but then completely forgot about the fact that the HTML file that needs reading is in the webapp, so then I get stuck.

It’s a bit complicated so do ask if you don’t get it!

Answer 1

Michell’s suggestion of using CodeIgniter/HTML5 Boilerplate by Serkan Sökmen is pretty close, but the problem is that it publishes it to a folder within itself, which if you published on a server (after deploy via Git), would mean the app is in public_html – bad for security.

I’ve started a topic about it in the issues at HTML5 Boilerplate if anybody’s interested. Not figure it out yet: https://github.com/h5bp/html5-boilerplate/issues/558

Edit! Updated!

I’ve created a GitHut repo for the files I’ve changed: https://github.com/thomasedwards/h5bp-publish-tree

It pretty much works the way I intended it to, might be worth something to somebody.

Answer 2

Since your using Git anyway, check out Serkan Sökmen's github branch where he's got CI and HTML5 Boilerplate working together: Codeigniter---HTML5-Boilerplate