Composer creates Drupal 8 install in /web/ directory

if you can't adjust composer's installation directory via its configuration, then you can adjust the document root on your server to have the host name resolve to the subdirectory. I'd dig in with composer first though.

edit: see https://github.com/drupal-composer/drupal-project/issues/258

In a Composer-driven workflow, using the recommended drupal-composer/drupal-project for one's install, I've found it useful to distinguish these 3 different locations:

1. Project root directory: this is where your top-level composer.json file lives. (For non-developers like me using Composer, I treat it as a fetch program, with the .json file being the list of what to fetch and where to fetch from. If you Google on how to use WordPress [can I say that here?] with Composer, there are some useful "how to" articles that are transferable to using Drupal.)
   1. In general, one invokes Composer from this directory.
   2. This is the directory where Composer will write the /vendor folder, with the various dependencies needed for the project in question.
   3. In my shared hosting account, I do have access to this directory (with owner:group permissions for my user). But I've not tried to run Composer in that environment.
2. Drupal root directory: identified by being where Drupal's top level files live; in particular, update.php. In the stated project, this will be one level down from the project root directory.
   1. In Drupal 8, one will find a few items (such as private files path, and the /config/sync folder settings, and the location of the /tmp folder, and maybe even the location for backup files using the Backup & Migrate module) that talk (obscurely) about pointing the location of those folders to a place outside the next location (the publicly accessible folder). So in my cloud server environment, where I have shell access, and control over setting ownership and permissions, I point those locations to the project root folder (from Drupal's folder: ../tmp, for example).
3. One's desired publicly-accessible directory; in Apache settings called "docroot"; in your question, the "public_html" directory. This location is governed by a) the general settings for your web server; b) plus any virtual hosts set up; and c) as modified (if things are set up that way) by any .htaccess file (ie, this directory is governed by webserver settings, and has nothing to do with Composer or Drupal, except as the underlying environment).
   1. In the particular project that creates the /web directory [which is the Drupal top level], I find it simplest to point my virtual host at that /web directory [ie, treating this /web directory as the /public_html directory in your set-up].
   2. In theory, it is possible to adjust one's Composer project to direct the Drupal portion of the install to a directory of one's choice. I'm not talking about the top level project root; I mean adjusting the /web directory location within that project; in your example, replacing /web with /public_html. I tried doing so once; but there are a lot of moving parts to that particular project, and I couldn't chase down all of the places where I needed to make that change. I've learned to accept that particular part of the world as it is.

So, in your situation, there are two broad options:

1. If a) you have access to the folder above /public_html (ie, what I'm calling the project root), and b) either yourself or with your hosting provider can adjust the web server environment, do a re-install by invoking Composer in that project root. And then try either:
   1. adjust the virtual host settings to point the webserver environment from /public_html to /web, or
   2. to copy everything from /web to /public_html. Though note that with this latter option, you'll need to edit the composer.json file to replace /web with /public_html [in the portion of that file that tells Composer where to install things].
   3. With a third possibility, which I've only read about and never tried, as it's more advanced Linux config magic, being to set up symbolic links from the /web directory to the /public_html directory, and seeing if the server will recognize that setup.
2. If you are stuck invoking Composer from the /public_html folder, then you will have to use one or more of the following options. All of which are part of much older discussions about how to serve Drupal from a subfolder; just search here at Drupal.org.
   1. Here, for example: https://www.drupal.org/forum/support/post-installation/2015-10-15/solved...
   2. In my shared hosting environment (where I have almost no control), with my Drupal install being one folder below the /public_html folder, my solution was to write a suitable .htaccess file to point to the Drupal subfolder. [In your situation, this would be a new .htaccess placed in your /public_html folder that then points the web server to the /web folder.]
      1. Apache documentation says that configuration set thru .htaccess files is slower than set thru virtual host settings.
   3. Depending on the contents of one's project level .htaccess, it may or may not be necessary to set one or both of the a) "RewriteBase" directive (located in the .htaccess file in the Drupal top level), and/or b) the "$base_url" item in settings.php. Compare with the 2015 article linked to above.
   4. Here is the relevant portion of my .htaccess file, which is located in my /public_html folder [which I got from someone's website in 2014, which has since disappeared; compare to the relevant portion of Drupal's .htaccess file]. It's for a D7 install, with the D7 top level being in /drupal7 (ie, /public_html/drupal7). I'm not a webserver expert, so don't fully understand what each line is doing. (You can research the directives at Apache docs.)
      1. Note that lines 2 and 3 and probably 4 below are a re-write rule to serve requests from https:// and not from http:// -- which only applies if you have an SSL certificate installed for your website. Use the pound sign (#) to comment out any line not relevant to your situation.]
      2. In my situation, I don't have to activate RewriteBase / in Drupal's .htaccess file [perhaps because it's there in line 1; but I haven't experimented], but I do activate the setting for: "$base_url = 'https://www.example.com';" in settings.php. But your mileage may vary.
      3. And in your situation as stated in your question, remember that you might have to point things two levels down (from your /public_html folder). My D7 subfolder is only one level down from /public_html. Your situation is: /public_html/[Composer top level]/[web -- ie, Drupal top level]

RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.example\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule .* https://www.example.com/ [L,R=301]
RewriteRule ^$ drupal7/index.php [L]
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/drupal7%{REQUEST_URI} -f
RewriteRule .* drupal7/$0 [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule .* drupal7/index.php?q=$0 [QSA]

You domain needs to specify the correct DocumentRoot: ....../web.
Note: that should be the absolute path in the filesystem up to and including the web folder.

Looks like it currently points to the folder that directory_name resides in.

Pretty simple to fix. As mmjvb state, just change your document root to point to the /web folder.  In this particular case in this issue, it would be 'public_html/directory_name/web'.

I am so lost on this topic.  I even have a dedicated server and direct access to the inner workings and cannot find a solution.  The server techs i'm speaking to (not experienced with drupal) say i can't change the Document Root (only on subdomains)... one even suggested creating another main domain and making my current domain a subdomain... argh!  In my example, i want users to navigate to mysite.com, not mysite.com/web.

I appreciate the posts above but they sort of go over my head.  I can understand it a little but it's obvious there is no clear solution.... Is there today in April 2019?

The Drupal root files are located in 'web' inside public_html/web/  

Still not understanding if it's possible... i'd like the drupal files to load from public_html/web/ at mysite.com .... not mysite.com/web

I don't plan on moving or changing my 'web' directory from public_html/web

Is there one answer and can you detail the solution and explain in laymen terms for idiots like me to achieve this?

Thank you! 

This is what I did to rearrange my local installation to use public_html:

"extra": {
    "composer-exit-on-patch-failure": true,
    "patchLevel": {
        "drupal/core": "-p2"
    },
    "installer-paths": {
        "public_html/core": ["type:drupal-core"],
        "public_html/libraries/{$name}": ["type:drupal-library"],
        "public_html/modules/contrib/{$name}": ["type:drupal-module"],
        "public_html/profiles/contrib/{$name}": ["type:drupal-profile"],
        "public_html/themes/contrib/{$name}": ["type:drupal-theme"],
        "drush/Commands/{$name}": ["type:drupal-drush"]
    },
    "drupal-scaffold": {
        "initial": {
            ".editorconfig": "../.editorconfig",
            ".gitattributes": "../.gitattributes"
        }
    }
}

Hi, if this isn't related please let me know.  Basically, I'm trying to download the OAuth  module using Composer to my Drupal root directory.  My Root Directory.  How do I connect Composer to my Drupal root directory?  I'm with GoDaddy.

Composer is working. I have the correct PHP file (Windows) so Composer is working.  I type: 

composer require "drupal/social_api:2.x-dev" "drupal/social_auth:2.x-dev" "drupal/social_auth_google:2.x-dev"

I get..

  [InvalidArgumentException]
  Could not find a matching version of package drupal/social_api. Check the package spelling, your version constraint
   and that the package is available in a stability which matches your minimum-stability (stable).

require [--dev] [--prefer-source] [--prefer-dist] [--no-progress] [--no-suggest] [--no-update] [--no-scripts] [--update-no-dev] [--update-with-dependencies] [--update-with-all-dependencies] [--ignore-platform-reqs] [--prefer-stable] [--prefer-lowest] [--sort-packages] [-o|--optimize-autoloader] [-a|--classmap-authoritative] [--apcu-autoloader] [--] [<packages>]...

can someone help?

Pantheon's hosting and development platform makes this process so much easier...
https://pantheon.io/docs/composer#managing-core-as-a-project-dependency
https://pantheon.io/docs/guides/build-tools
https://pantheon.io/docs/guides/drupal-8-composer-no-ci

On root htaccess file add the following

RewriteEngine on

# Redirect to the subdirectory because that's where Drupal is installed
RewriteRule (.*) web/$1 [L]

In the setting.php file just above the database statement add - (You may need to change permissions to edit the settings file, just remember to switch them back to 0444.)

if ( isset($GLOBALS['request']) && '/web/index.php' === $GLOBALS['request']->server->get('SCRIPT_NAME') ) {
	$GLOBALS['request']->server->set('SCRIPT_NAME', '/index.php');
}

Now site will resolve correctly. 

I'm here to thank the world for this thread. I'm developing in a WAMP environ under Win7.  I have 5 sites as sub-folders under the root of wamp (which is WWW - not docroot, public_html etc.)  The problem I see is this - if the composer.json file lives in the docroot (c:\wamp64\www) then how does composer manage multiple independent projects under it?  I mix/match my Apache and PHP to reflect my clients structures.  I'm trying to figure out the optimal folder structure, not just one that works.  Wouldn't it seem prudent to keep the composer.json out of the public structure or am I just burned out and missing the obvious?

<Rant> I crapped my environment.  Because of a module bug, drupal 8.8 was required for a module update (asset Injection) but I didn't know about the bug before I updated.  Prior to this bug being documented by the developer, I had already snapshot my environment then did my module updates BEFORE I moved from 8.7 to 8.8.  Update.php wouldn't run.  I had been using composer for some basic tasks, but my d8 wasn't a composer based install as is now suggested. 
Trying to recover got me nowhere so I attempted composizer and it failed. saying 'SMSGateway not found'. so I tried gocomposer. and my content went bad (add on libraries managed by composer gone). I tracked down what I had no idea of - composer files in my user\appdata\roaming folder of all places.  gocomposer failed with what look like OS errors "\" vs "/" OMG. what a mess! I couldn't go forward and couldn't go back.  Thanks D8.  2 hours coding, and 10 hrs debugging. I remember when ...

Now to go rebuild from scratch - you'd think after 14 yrs Drupal would be cleaner. </rant>

Hi,

thank you for this thread, but i'm still confused on this matter.
So I installed my site locally with composer : 

• composer create-project drupal-composer/drupal-project:8.x-dev my_site_name_dir --no-interaction

With this, the root of my site is the "web" folder. Everything works fine.

I upload my site to my hosting server, were I have to put everything in the "www" directory. This can't be changed.
So what is now the best solution for my to be able to open my site. Change someting in the .htacces ? Or install my website a different way, so I don't have that "web" directory anymore. But then the "vendor" folder is in the same directory as the rest.

Sorry of this question is repeated, but I can't find the proper (easy :-) ) solution.

Thank you for your help,

Basiel

I never really followed further on this - since most of my sites I manage are d7, only 2 are d8.  I ended up creating a vm for the one site that doesn't really do much just for testing updates etc.  Just a thought for others - either use Oracles Virtualbox or in win 10 pro - hyperv (will require additional OS licenses after 90 days.)

Hi,

I know this is an old thread but I'm having to exact same problem. Everything gets put in a web directory using composer create-project drupal/recommended-project public_html

I can't then navigate in my browser to my site's url and start the setup.

Please let me know if I'm doing something obvious wrong!

Thanks!

All our clients so far use Cpanel so long time I thought about this and I found a way to make the setup. What we do is we make a 'modified install' which initiates the project (creates composer.json and composer.lock) but does not download Drupal and the dependencies yet. We will be doing this on Cpanel root away from public_html (it's recommended to place composer.json and vendor away from the web-root), so we will now edit composer.json and change the web-root and installer-paths from 'web/' to 'public_html/', save the file and run 'composer install'. Drupal will be installed in public_html easy. I explain this in more detail in my blog post, https://www.skillmaticace.com/blog/how-install-drupal-8-composer-cpanel