Codeigniter 3.x - Preload $data to ALL views alongside dynamic data

Question

Question:

Out of curiosity, I'm wondering if Codeigniter provides a way to have specific data always loaded into a view.

For example: I have a config file that contains site information that would be beneficial to have access to inside of a view for all pages, rather than having to call to load that data every time a load a view, could I always have it included?

<?php
    //Standard way
    function index() {

        $this->load->config('site_settings', true);
        $data['config'] = $this->config->item('site_settings');
        $data['fizz'] = 'buzz';

        $this->load->view('index', $data);
    }

    //Way I'd like to see
    function index() {
        $data['foo'] = 'bar';
        $this->load->view('index', $data); //$data already includes $data['config']
    }
?>

Option 1:

Some kind of MY_Loader Extension - We already have a MY_Controller, so it wouldn't be too far fetched to do a MY_Loader Class and have MY_Controller call that instead of CI_Loader. However, I'm not sure this is possible.

Option 2:

I know this is possible if you edit system files, but I would really prefer not doing that. As that makes changes hard to track when updating CI.

Option 3:

???

Thoughts?

Edit For Clarification: This is specifically for loading data into views, extending CI_Controller and setting member variables there are ONLY accessible from models and controllers NOT views.

Juts not sure if you have noticed: `$this->load->View` the word view is capital letter? — , Nov 19 '15 at 22:43

Kisaragi · Answer 1 · 2015-11-19T22:45:51.677

1

Class foo extends CI_controller{
     public $_site_settings;

     function __construct()
    {
          $this->_site_settings = $this->config->item('site_settings');
    }
}

edited Nov 19 '15 at 22:45

answered Nov 19 '15 at 22:39

Kisaragi

2,198
3
16
28

Yes, I've tried that and it works to have `$this->_site_settings` loaded for all **controllers and models** that extend `CI_Controller` but **does not work** for views – acupofjose Nov 19 '15 at 22:41
1

I've just confirmed codeigniter 2.x the above method allows me to use `$_site_settings` in a view called by a class its declared in – Kisaragi Nov 19 '15 at 22:46
Apologies - this question was tagged for CI 3.x, I'll clarify in the OP – acupofjose Nov 19 '15 at 22:48
You may also try declaring it in `constants.php`. – Kisaragi Nov 19 '15 at 22:50
yes you could define it there, but `constants.php` does not have access to the database – acupofjose Nov 19 '15 at 22:54

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 19 '15 at 23:32

1

You could just initialize the array in your own controller class, and append to that array too:

Class MY_Controller extends CI_Controller {
    private $data = array();    
    function __construct()
    {
          parent::__construct();
          $this->data['config'] = $this->config->item('site_settings');
    }
}

then:

Class foo extends MY_Controller {
 function index() {
    $this->data['fizz'] = 'buzz';
    $this->load->view('index', $this->data);
  }
}

answered Nov 19 '15 at 23:32

skrilled

5,350
2
26
48

1

Thank you for the answer! The goal was to prevent rewriting all of the existing functions, but this is definitely a way to do it. I ended up figuring out the answer for myself and posted it. – acupofjose Nov 19 '15 at 23:40

acupofjose · Accepted Answer · 2015-11-20T16:19:25.153

Thank you all for the answers! I figured it out!

You can actually extend over Codeigniter's CI_Loader Class which is pretty cool!

/application/core/MY_Loader.php

class MY_Loader extends CI_Loader
{
    protected $data;

    public function __construct()
    {
        parent::__construct();
    }

    public function preload($data = array())
    {
        $this->data = $data;
    }

    public function view($view, $vars = array(), $return = FALSE)
    {
        array_merge($vars, $this->data);
        return parent::view($view, $vars, $return);
    }
}

Usage:

/application/core/MY_Controller.php

class MY_Controller extends CI_Controller
{
    public function __construct()
    {
        //Load CI In
        parent::__construct();
        $this->load->preload(array('foo' => 'bar'));
    }
}

/application/controllers/Controller.php

class Controller extends MY_Controller
{

    public function __construct()
    {
        parent::__construct(); // !!IMPORTANT
    }

    public function index() 
    {
        $this->load->view('index', array('fizz' => 'buzz'));
    }
}

/application/views/index.php

<?php var_dump($foo, $fizz); ?>

Output:

"bar"
"buzz"