## # Structuring a WordPress Composer project

<br>

Before continuing, it's good to talk about the structure of the WordPress project.  So far, the **default location** of our WordPress folder is directly in the root. We'll want to move it to another directory which we'll call **public**. The benefit is that we can hide **private or sensitive** information outside of the public folder, which cannot be accessed via a url.

We also want to separate the **wp-content** folder and code unique to the project from the WordPress core.

<br><br>

Here's the project structure:

```yml
root
  |-- composer.json
  |-- composer.lock
  |-- public
    |-- wordpress       # From John P Bloch's project
    |-- wp-content      
       |-- themes       # Mixture of repository themes and loaded via composer
       |-- plugins      # Mixture of repository plugins and loaded via composer
       |-- uploads      # Uploads folder, ignored by the repository (via .gitignore)
  |-- vendor            # Composer packages folder
```

So how will we achieve this?

<br><br>

#### Change the default WordPress directory

All we have to do is add the following to the Composer file:

```
> composer.json
```
```json
{
  "extra": {
    "wordpress-install-dir": "public/wordpress"
  }
}
```

> Note: The WordPress installer Composer by John P Bloch allows WordPress packages to be installed outside the vendor folder. It allows allows for custom directories also.

<br><br>

To install it again, run:

```
$ composer update
```

<br><br>

#### Delete the old WordPress directory

You'll now find WordPress in the **public/wordpress** folder. You'll also find the old folder is still there directory in the route which should be removed:

```
$ rm -rf wordpress # You may have to use sudo privileges
```

<br><br>

### Add the theme, upload and plugin folders

```
$ mkdir public/wp-content \
	&& mkdir public/wp-content/themes \
	&& mkdir public/wp-content/uploads \
	&& mkdir public/wp-content/plugins
```

> **Note:** To preserve the folder structure in Git whilst empty, just add a **.gitkeep** file to each folder.