Description
By autoloading components of Codeigniter, it's easy to DRY up applications by autoloading views, adding the capaility of loading layouts depending on the class and method, logging, and other useful tasks.
Usage
To use this core extension, is simple.
Loading
Copy the EXT_Controller.php file to your application/core folder, and set your $config['subclass_prefix']. to EXT_ (or just rename the file with the value you want. EXT_ is just the default for this file, and MY_ for Codeigniter).
You can read this in detail in the [Codeigniter User Guide][Uer Guide] (section Extending Core Class).
Extending controllers
After you do set up the controller core class, extend your controllers to the chosen prefix instead of the default (CI_Controller):
class Controller extends EXT_Controller {
public function __construct() {
// code
}
public function index() {
// more code
}
}Auto-loading views
When creating your views, create them inside a files/ directory inside your views/ directory. The strcuture is:
application/
views/
files/
controller/
method.php
The extension will auto-load the method.php view file (according to your method specified in your controller).
To change the default view use $this->view = 'files/path/to/view'
Layouts
- Create a
layouts/directory inside yourviews/directory and create adefault.phpfile. - Add
<?php echo $content; >to that file and the HTML that will contain it.$contentsotres all the data inside your view (loaded in application/view/files/controller/method). - To change the default layout, use `$this->layout = 'name' inside your controller.
In-depth explanation
There's a detailed blog post on how I made this and what does this do on my website — be sure to check it out!