Core inheritance & customization

In SiberianCMS we have designed an inheritance system to allow for custom modification & improvements.

How it works ?

Siberian ships as three editions, SAE, MAE & PE, and each one is a stack of folders in app:

local  >  pe  >  mae  >  sae           app/<layer>/<same relative path>

Edition	Layers loaded (lowest to highest)
SAE	sae, local
MAE	sae, mae, local
PE	sae, mae, pe, local

A file with the same relative path in two layers is replaced by the upper one, it is not merged: any file named the same as in a lower layer takes precedence on it. local always wins, this is where your modules live.

Be aware that the file you override may itself already be an override: on MAE and PE the file in app/sae can be hidden by a file of app/mae or app/pe, and then a copy of the sae one in local replaces the edition's version as well. Start from the file of the highest layer your edition has, not from the one in app/sae.

Cache

The core inheritance is cached: every design file of a layer is listed in app/<layer>/design/design-cache.json (app/local/design/design-cache.json for your modules), and the layout only sends the files that are listed. So each time you add or remove a design file in local, the cache must be rebuilt, see Module > Cache (./cli cache:design sae, replace sae with your edition).

Note: when installing and/or updating a module with the regular zip package, the cache is automatically cleared for the users.

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However you can also wipe various cache levels manually in the Backoffice dashboard:

Example

Design files

If your module needs to override an actual Siberian design you must explicitely declare it in your module init.php (or the deprecated bootstrap.php)

<?php
$init = function ($bootstrap) {
    Siberian_Cache_Design::overrideCoreDesign("ModuleName");
};

The recommended way to override a template is to create a minimal module package, this way everything is self-contained and you can easily maintain code.

ModuleName
├─ resources
│  └─ design/desktop/flat/template/loyaltycard/application/edit.phtml
└─ package.json

if you need to customize a template for example:

/app/sae/modules/LoyaltyCard/resources/design/desktop/flat/template/loyaltycard/application/edit.phtml

simply duplicate the file in your module:

ModuleName/resources/design/desktop/flat/template/loyaltycard/application/edit.phtml

Then apply your modification into this module file/files.

 

Siberian core classes

Overriding core classes is different, as they explicitely need the module to require classes the autoloader will not find them as they will not be PSR compliant.

Everything is declared in the init.php file (or the deprecated bootstrap.php) this way:

<?php
$init = function ($bootstrap) {
    /** Get the base path to your module */
    $base = path("/app/local/modules/ModuleName/");

    /** Require the classes */
    require_once "{$base}/controllers/IndexController.php";
};

Example

You want to override:

/app/sae/modules/Api/Model/Key.php

You have to create:

ModuleName
├─ [...]
├─ Api/Model/Key.php
└─ [...]

Then require it in your init.php

<?php
$init = function ($bootstrap) {
    /** Get the base path to your module */
    $base = path("/app/local/modules/ModuleName/");

    /** Require the classes */
    require_once "{$base}/Api/Model/Key.php";
};

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Note: SiberianCMS regular update will not alter the local folder, so you can track your customizations safely.