get the advanced layout library on codeigniter on tahsin’s garage.

I’m not going to explain too much about those weaknesses, mainly because most of those weaknesses may not be practical for some (if not most) users but just to give you an idea:

* You cannot “extend” the bootstrap process.
* The controller/router/CI_Base are coupled badly, something that for example, prevents from loading multiple controllers.

I have never used the “View Object” class. I think it’s a good idea and that the implementation that be improved a bit.

For example:

When you use the standard CI views and you use an undeclared variable, a notice will be issued by PHP and may or may not be printer to the screen and/or a file.

When you use this class, it seems to me (just by reading the code, I have never used it and hope that I’m correct) that you can easily cause your application to die because you’re calling an undeclared method (rather than a variable).

To make things a bit clear:

* Standard views: < -- will issue a warning/notice;

* "View Object": render() ?> <– will exit;

This could be solved by using PHP’s “magic methods”. __get() and __set() would be a good start.

Also, another quick way is to use the __to_string() magic method so that in the views, you don’t need to call the render() method. You can simply echo the variable. The rest will be done internally.

The only issue (I see) with those suggestions is that they’re PHP-5 specific but in general, I think I’m gonna start using the View Object class.

thanks

[...] http://codeigniter.com/wiki/layout_library/ Cake-like layout library for Code Igniter. Having a link in the Wiki may make it appear to be an official library, but it is not at all endorsed by Code Igniter. It is a simple method, and works quite well. [...]

johns-jokes.com/downloads/template_joshhighland.txt

Now I let CodeIgniter generate “self contained block statement strings” which are used in the following template/view.php

div {border:dotted 0px} /* DEBUG 1px */

<

<

This is a great discovery. I wonder why it is not documented!

The CI user guide is one of the best, but even so, the user forum adds a lot of good information. If you search there i’m sure you’ll find some interesting pieces of code that are not present in the user guide (actually it makes sense to have a clean user guide that gets you started without adding to much complexity)

Then, load some other views in some temporary variables, instead of echoing them (use the third parameter of load view with a value of “true”).

Use the temporary variables as the data used to display the ‘layout’.

Ex:
$content = $this->load->view(‘content’,$content_data,true);//instead of displaying the view to screen, you get it’s content in $content
$alldata['title'] = “Some page variable”;
$alldata['content_holder'] = $content;//you should have a <?=content_holder?> in your layout
$this->load->view(‘layout’,$alldata);

Sorry if my explanation is not very clear.