Summary

Track a full compilation footprint of your Joomla component — including the total number of files, folders, and lines of generated code — to assess component size, manage scope, and monitor growth over time.

🧾 What’s Included

Each time you compile a JCB component, the compiler records:

• 📄 Total number of generated files (PHP, XML, INI, JS, CSS, etc.)
• 📁 Total number of folders created in the compiled output
• 📏 Total number of lines of code (across all file types)

This includes core MVC files, templates, snippets, language files, helpers, updates, and installer scripts.

📌 Where You See It

• 🧩 On the compiler summary screen post-build
• 🪵 Included in the JSON metadata export (if enabled)
• 📦 Shown inline in build reports and CLI logs
• ✅ Tracked historically in JCB’s metadata tables for version comparison

📊 Why It Matters

Knowing your component’s compiled footprint helps with:

• Estimating deployment weight (file count, size)
• Debugging version bloating or redundancy
• Reviewing generated output against expectations
• Monitoring build complexity over time

🛠 Example Use Cases

• A small plugin should generate < 30 files — you notice 80? Review what's compiling.
• Your component grows from 1,200 to 5,000 lines in a month — analyze blueprint changes.
• Rebuilding with fewer views — did the compiled folders drop accordingly?

🚀 Best Practices

• Watch for unexpected file growth (especially under /views/ and /tmpl/)
• Use counters to compare against previously compiled builds
• Combine with per-view stats for deeper granularity

Conclusion

Total file/folder/line counters offer a quick but essential snapshot of your Joomla component's compiled output. Whether you're optimizing, auditing, or just monitoring growth, these stats provide high-level visibility into what your codebase truly consists of — automatically, every time you compile.