Question

I have a block of code I’d like to put in my CI 2.x core folder and reuse via a base controller that would be extended by all of my other controllers.

Here is the code that appears in every controller and I want to move to somewhere more central:

$data['navigation'] = generate_navigation();  // helper function
$data['country'] = code2country();  // helper function
$data['langs'] = $this->select_country_model->get_langs();

// Get copy and images for page
$query = $this->common_model->get_content('markets', 'architectural');

// Load title, description and keywords tags with data
foreach ($query as $row) {
    $data['title'] = $row->page_title;
    $data['description'] = $row->description;
    $data['keywords'] = $row->keywords;
}

How do I put this in my base controller (MY_controller.php) and then send the data to my view from the extended controller. Do I still use $data[] = and $this->load->view('whatever', $data)?

Answer 1

Yeah, you can still pass this along in a $data variable, but you’ll need to assign it so that you can access it from the other controller like this:

class MY_Controller extends CI_Controller {

    var $data = array();

    function __construct()
    {
        $this->load->model('select_country_model');
        $this->load->model('common_model');

        $this->data['navigation'] = generate_navigation();  // helper function
        $this->data['country'] = code2country();  // helper function
        $this->data['langs'] = $this->select_country_model->get_langs();

        $query = $this->common_model->get_content('markets', 'architectural');

        foreach ($query as $row) {
            $this->data['title'] = $row->page_title;
            $this->data['description'] = $row->description;
            $this->data['keywords'] = $row->keywords;
        }
    }
}

Then just extend you controller with MY_Controller and you will have access to the $data with $this->data.