Change CodeIgniter controllers directory depending on url

Question

I'm new to CodeIgniter and I have to make a mobile website which will be on a subdomain. The only different thing to be loaded depending if you are mobile or not would be the controllers directory, all the rest of the application folder is fine for both versions. How can I tell CodeIgniter to charge specific controllers directory depending on some parameters?

Or maybe isn't it the best way to manage mobile site based on a subdomain with CodeIgniter? I want to have access to the same custom libraries and models.

Thanks for guiding me, I'm lost! :)

I do not fully know CI, but how about if you add something on the construct of the classes that check the hostname and include an extended class located in a different folder and then you call such class ? you will have to do some hacking but it seems possible. Or you can always use the hooks — Fabrizio, Aug 06 '12 at 20:22

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:56

I advise against creating multiple controller directories. Controller logic will most likely be the same for a large portion of your site. You can create separate functions in the controller for when the mobile and desktop versions diverge.

First, I recommend making all controllers inherit from a custom controller. See Phil Sturgeon's post on Keeping It Dry. Once this is implemented, you can check whether the request comes from mobile or desktop in this custom 'mother' controller and all descendent controllers will know about it. Use CodeIgniter's native $this->agent->is_mobile():

class MY_Controller extends CI_Controller{
    function __construct(){
        parent::__construct();
        $this->data['agent'] = ($this->agent->is_mobile())? 'mobile' : 'desktop';
        $this->load->vars($this->data);
    }
}

It's your presentation that will change, Not your controllers. Now that you know the origin (agent) of the request, you can render the appropriate content:

Create two directories in your views directory.

views
    desktop
    mobile

And when calling your views:

$this->load->view($this->data['agent'] . "/theview");

Regarding the ajax requests you mentioned in a comment -- you can check for those using CodeIgniter's native $this->input->is_ajax_request() function. When users click links or buttons on your site and a controller is fired, whether on mobile or desktop, they will often share similar functionality (database writes for example)... but you can use the is_ajax_request() function to diverge and provide a response that suits the platform.

Recommend checking out my answer to another StackOverflow question on view structure for more information.

Hope this helps.

You answer is awesome Jordan, thank you so much! I will accept it of course! I have a 2 questions if you can help me: On the mobile site, if I want to put a link to show the desktop version, the best practice would be session in that custom controller right? And also, to manage images and CSS, is there a best practice regarding this case? I truly appreciate your help and helpful response, thank you again! — Jeff B., Aug 07 '12 at 15:43

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 06 '12 at 20:18

You'll want to look at routing to do what you're trying to do. I'm not really sure why you want different controllers as I'd assume the data you're displaying will be the same for each page (mobile vs non mobile) - just the layout will change to better fit the mobile platform. If that's the case all you'd need to do is load a different view (the mobile/desktop view respectively) after you gather/process all the data in your controller depending on the user-agent - you wouldn't even need a different subdomain let alone another set of controllers. This is the power of MVC.

The mobile version will include different features actually, and some request won't be done the exact same way (ajax in mobile, not desktop by example). — Jeff B., Aug 06 '12 at 20:24

Change CodeIgniter controllers directory depending on url

2 Answers2