Question

EDIT:

What is the best way to structure complex applications with CodeIgniter? To make this question more specific, maybe to just focus on structuring controllers: If you have a Users controller, than should all functions be in this one file? In other words, you might have controller actions that tie to specific views, but a bunch of helper functions as well.

ORIGINAL QUESTION: Given a complex application, with Users, Transactions, Products, does it make sense to have a Controller for each of them? And since each of these corresponds to a database table, to have a corresponding model for each of them? I think it does, but an application I am currently working on consists of one 3000 line controller and one 3000 line model. Just want to verify the standard practice regarding CI and the application structure.

Answer 1

I’d like to share my application structure here.

I start with model. I write 1 model for one table in the mysql database. I already have MY_Model class that I put in system/application/libraries/ folder. This class have get_detail, get_list, get_total, get_all, insert, update, and delete method. I store the table name in a var, so basically I just need this code in model to make it worked:

class Some_table_model extends MY_Model {
  function Some_table_model()
  {
    $this->tablename = 'some_table';
    $this->primary_key = 'id';
  }

}

Update: after some more project, I have added new var to hold the column name used for primary key in the table. This way, I will have more flexibility by not hard coded the column name for primary key in MY_Model.

For the controller, I create it according to it’s usage by user. Example for a product, I will have this controller:

function Product extends Controller {
  function index()
  {
    //display product list, paginated
  }
  function admin()
  {
    //protected by session
    //display product list for admin, paginated
    //handle POST request to delete a product or products
  }
  function form()
  {
    //protected by session
    //handle add/edit product for admin
  }
}

View is related to controller. For above controller, I will have at least 3 view file:

product_list.php
product_admin.php
product_form.php

View can be placed in subdir, for example, I can arrange it like this:

system/application/views/front/product.php
system/application/views/admin/product_list.php
system/application/views/admin/product_form.php

If product have category, I will need another table and model for it, but for controller, I can put the page inside Product controllers, by adding category into the function name:

function category_admin()
{
  //get parameter
  //...
  //process data
  //...
  //redirect or load view
  //...
}

function category_form()
{
  //get parameter
  //...
  //process data
  //...
  //redirect or load view
  //...
}

That’s what I do and it’s work for me. Hope this help you find a better way to refactor your CodeIgniter’s code.