Question

I have a function

function do_something() {
    // process
    $this->load->view('some_view', $data);
    exec('mv /path/to/folder1/*.mp3 /path/to/folder2/');
}

My intention is to move files after outputting the view. But apparently it is done before rendering the view. My question is, does $this->load->view(); have to be the final step in a function?

I did a little research, and seems like my question is similar to this topic. Correct?

Answer 1

Why don’t you just use a post_system hook? It’s called after the final page is sent to the browser, that way you can load views normally, without echoing them out.

Here’s an example controller:

class Home extends Controller {

    function index()
    {
        $this->move_audio = TRUE;
        $this->old_folder = "/path/to/folder/";
        $this->new_folder = "/path/to/folder2/";

        $this->load->view("some_view");
    }

}

And an example hook:

function post_system()
{
    $CI =& get_instance();

    if( isset($CI->move_audio) && $CI->move_audio === TRUE)
    {
        // Trim, then add trailing slash for consitency
        $old_folder = rtrim($CI->old_folder, "/")."/*.mp3";
        $new_folder = rtrim($CI->new_folder, "/")."/";

        exec("mv {$old_folder} {$new_folder}");
    }
}

Check out the hooks user guide for info on setting them up. They are your friends!

EDIT: Something I just thought of…

If you’re only going to be doing this inside one controller method… it would probably be better to use Phil’s approach. This would avoid having a hook call for every request which would be unnecessary if you only need it once.

Another thing you could do, if you only need it once, is use CI’s _output() handler for Controllers (info here). That would work like this:

class Home extends Controller {

    // Initalize the var to avoid having to
    // check if it's set or not

    var $move_audio = FALSE;

    // CONTROLLER METHOD    
    function index()
    {
        $this->move_audio = TRUE;
        $this->old_folder = "/path/to/folder/";
        $this->new_folder = "/path/to/folder2/";

        $this->load->view("some_view");
    }

    // OUTPUT HANDLER
    function _output($output = "")
    {
        echo $output;

        if($this->move_audio === TRUE)
        {
            // Trim, then add trailing slash for consitency
            $old_folder = rtrim($this->old_folder, "/")."/*.mp3";
            $new_folder = rtrim($this->new_folder, "/")."/";

            exec("mv {$old_folder} {$new_folder}");
        }
    }
}