Codeigniter, how to make a template

Question

Hello all,

im trying to ding into codeigniter MVC but i dont know how i make my template so i have 2 files (header and footer) and then i can make my controllers and then ONLY put information in the "content" div, so i include the top and the header a good way like this

<?php
include("header.php");
?>
<div id="content">My content here</div>

<?php
include("footer.php");
?>

hope you understand what i mean and can help me out :)

Answer 1

Mmmm, no not really. Here's how you should be doing MVC.

Inside your controller, have something like this:

$this->load->view('header');
$this->load->view('content');
$this->load->view('footer');

Finally, create views for each of these files (inside the /system/application/views folder)

Answer 2

The best way is to load views within your views.

Within views/content.php:

<? $this->view('header', array('title'=>'The page title', 'keywords'=>'some keywords', 'etc'=>'...')); ?>
<div id="content">My content here</div>
<? $this->view('footer'); ?>

So in your controller you would do this:

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

$data could contain 'title' or 'keywords' and that would be implemented as such in your controller:

$data['title'] = 'title';
$data['keywords' = 'keywords';

And this in your 'content' view:

<? $this->view('header', array('title'=>$title, 'keywords'=>$keywords)); ?>
<div id="content">My content here</div>
<? $this->view('footer'); ?>

This question is worded differently, but nearly identical to this one in substance: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/765845/codeigniter-or-php-equivalent-of-rails-partials-and-templates

Answer 3

Try using a template library, they will help you tremendously down the road. Helps you manage templates better than default $this->load->view('content', $data);

Here are some great examples:

• Most Simple Template Library for CodeIgniter

• Yet Another Codeigniter Template System

There are more online, try googling them :)

Answer 4

Here is what I do. I have a file called layout.php, with all the html layout in it and inside my , I do:

$this->load->view($template);

In your controller, you can do this:

$data['template'] = 'filename'; 
$this->load->view('layout', $data);

Like this it will load the file called "filename" inside the <div></div>