CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpcodeignitersingle-responsibility-principle
Orel Bitton.
Orel Bitton.

Reputation: 65

CodeIgniter Models & Controllers Confusion

Today i've decided that I should start relying on a PHP framework because writing from scratch every time is really exhausting. As my framework I've chosen CodeIgniter, and I want to say It's amazing and easy to use. But I have some questions and confusion all over. I'm not pretty sure how to structre my website since I don't know when to use Models, and when to use Controllers.
What I have right now is:

Pages Controller

// PAGES CONTROLLER
// As its name, this controller simply loads pages by a url query.
class Pages extends CI_Controller {
    /*
     * Constructor - loads the variables model.
     */
    public function __construct() {
        parent::__construct ();
        $this->load->model ( 'variables' );
    }
    /*
     * Displays a page by its name.
     */
    public function view($page = 'home') {
        if (! file_exists ( "application/views/pages/$page.php" )) {
            show_404 ();
        }
        $data ['title'] = ucfirst ( $page );
        $data ['variables'] = $this->variables;

        $this->load->view ( "templates/header", $data );
        $this->load->view ( "pages/$page", $data );
        $this->load->view ( "templates/footer", $data );
    }
}


Variables Model

// VARIABLES MODEL
// Used like a "mysql variables", all the data is taken from a table contains 2
// rows: id and value. and those variables are mostly used for site settings.
class Variables extends CI_Model {
    /*
     * Constructor, simply loads the database.
     */
    public function __construct() {
        $this->load->database ();
    }
    /*
     * Gets a variable stored in the database.
     */
    public function get($id) {
        $query = $this->db->get_where ( 'variables', array (
                'id' => $id 
        ) );
        return $query->row_array ()["value"];
    }
    /*
     * Sets a variable stored in the database.
     */
    public function set($id, $value) {
        $this->db->where ( 'id', $id );
        $this->db->update ( 'variables', array (
                'value' => $value 
        ) );
    }
}

Am I using the correct hierarchy? Is there something I could change?

Now for my main question: lets say for example that I want to add a membership functionality for my websites. Should I do the following? :

Member Controller - Managing the current member, and all the forms actions are leading to this controller which communicates with the Members model(see below).

Members model - Handles all the database handling, functions like: login, register, getMember.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 163

Answers (1)

leonardeveloper
leonardeveloper

Reputation: 1853

I just want to suggest in your controller you can do this in two lines:

    $this->load->view ( "templates/header", $data );
    $this->load->view ( "pages/$page", $data );
    $this->load->view ( "templates/footer", $data );

Since you can load your view inside a view then you can try: In your view e.g template.php

    $this->load->view('templates/header');
    $this->load->view($main_content);
    $this->load->view('templates/footer');

And you might want your controller on not having too much code because all heavy task should be in your model so in your controller :

   $data['main_content'] = $page;
    $this->load->view('templates/template',$data);

Upvotes: 2

Related Questions