Question

How do people construct websites with cake/CI ect… for easy maintenance on the html?

I can put each of the sections in its own view file and make the website that way:

<div id="header"></div> <!-- header_view.php -->
<div id="content"> <!-- header_view.php -->
    <div id="left_column"></div> <!-- page_x_view.php -->
    <div id="center_column"></div> <!-- page_x_view.php -->
</div>
<div id="footer"></div> <!-- footer_view.php -->

But each page_x_view.php file would contain

<div id="left_column"><!-- Content --></div>
<div id="center_column"><!-- Content --></div>

And I’m duplicating these items through each of the files, so if I need to change the column structure then it is not easy.

Hopefully I am clear.

Answer 1

I have a controller caled MY_Controller which has a method that renders the complete page. I extend all my controllers from this main controller. HOw this helps? My main controllers takes a view and embedds it in the main content area of page and assembles a complete page. This controller takes header, footer, sidebar views and does all the mambo jumbo. Its very easy to develop such a system in CI. Some this call two step or multiple views. So if some random day I have to change layout of my page I just need to look at MY_Controller.

Cake on the other side uses layouts. I have done just one project in CakePHP so am not that expert but you can achieve the same effect in any framework. Here is how I do it in CI

<?php if (!defined('BASEPATH')) exit('No direct script access allowed');

class MY_Controller extends CI_Controller 
{

    public function __construct() 
    {
        parent::__construct();
        log_message('debug', 'Controller Library '.__CLASS__ . ' ('. __FILE__ .') loaded.');
        $this->properties['viewPath'] = $this->config->item('viewPath');
        $this->setPageMetaData();
        $this->setFavIcon();

    }

    public function render($viewData = null, $data=null)
    {
        $data = array(
            'headerLayout' => $this->printHeaderLayout(array_merge($this->properties, (isset($data['headerLayout'])?$data['headerLayout']:array()))),
            'leftLayout' => $this->printLeftLayout(array_merge($this->properties, (isset($data['leftLayout'])?$data['leftLayout']:array()))),
            'rightLayout' => $this->printRightLayout(array_merge($this->properties, (isset($data['rightLayout'])?$data['rightLayout']:array()))),
            'footerLayout' => $this->printFooterLayout(array_merge($this->properties, (isset($data['footerLayout'])?$data['footerLayout']:array()))),
            'containerLayout' => $viewData,
        );
        this->load->view($this->properties['viewPath'].'layout/layout.php', $data);
    }

    public function setPageMetaData($pageMetaData=null) 
    {
        $this->properties['pageTitle'] = isset($pageMetaData['pageTitle'])? $pageMetaData['pageTitle'] : $this->config->item('pageTitle');
        $this->properties['pageKeywords'] = isset($pageMetaData['pageKeywords'])? $pageMetaData['pageKeywords'] : $this->config->item('pageKeywords');
        $this->properties['pageDescription'] = isset($pageMetaData['pageDescription'])? $pageMetaData['pageDescription'] : $this->config->item('pageDescription');
    }

    public function setFavIcon($favIcon=null) 
    {
        $this->properties['favIcon'] = (null !== $favIcon) ? $favIcon : $this->config->item('favIcon');
    }

    public function printHeaderLayout($data=null)
    {
        return ($this->load->view($this->properties['viewPath'].'layout/header', $data, true));
    }

    public function printFooterLayout($data=null)
    {
        return( $this->load->view($this->properties['viewPath'].'layout/footer', $data, true));
    }

    public function printLeftLayout($data=null)
    {
        return($this->load->view($this->properties['viewPath'].'layout/left', $data, true));
    }

    public function printRightLayout($data=null)
    {
        return($this->load->view($this->properties['viewPath'].'layout/right', $data, true));
    }
}

Do note that this is not the exact code. I had to modify it for you, so do not blindly user it. If you know CI you will understand that I have setup paths to view in a config file. This helps me in setting up two totally different themes and use same controller. I can also add authentication layer which will based on user authentication/cookies can show a login or logout link in header. This is a template which I keep change and I extend all my controllers from MY_Controller and use in my controllers I simply do

 $viewDataForForm = $this->load->view($this->properties['viewPath'].'homepage/some-form', array(), true);
 $viewDataForContent = $this->load->view($this->properties['viewPath'].'homepage/some-content', array(), true);
 $this->render($viewDataForForm.$viewDataForContent);

HTH!