Question

I have been looking at CodeIgniter template systems and all so far, it allows you to change content within the header or footer file, but I am looking for a way to load data in to the header file from a model automatically (dependent on the template).

For example, in my header, it displays the users username and inbox. I need to load the users unread messages from a model and the users username. This is dependent on the template though – I only want to load that information if the user is logged in.

Answer 1

Passing data from model to a view is not a good practice.

You should pass data first to the controller and only then to your view.

http://codeigniter.com/user_guide/overview/appflow.html

As you can see on this application flow chart – there is no straight line between model and view.

If you are interested in displaying model data in your “layout” – use hooks!

http://codeigniter.com/user_guide/general/hooks.html

Define a “pre_controller” hook, get CI instance, load model, retrive data and display it in your layout.

Enable hooks

$config['enable_hooks'] = TRUE;

Define a hook like:

$hook['pre_controller'] = array(
                                'class'    => 'MyClass',
                                'function' => 'Myfunction',
                                'filename' => 'Myclass.php',
                                'filepath' => 'hooks',
                                'params'   => array('beer', 'wine', 'snacks')
                                );

E.g.

Hook

<?php

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

class Gamescount
{
        private $model_name = '';

        public function __construct() 
        {
                $this->CI =& get_instance();
                $this->model_name = 'Games_model';
                $this->CI->load->database();
                $this->CI->load->model($this->model_name);
                $this->CI->load->helper('url');
        }

        public function count_games()
        {
                $all_games = $this->CI->Games_model->getAllGames();
                $this->CI->gamescount = count($all_games);
        }
}

?>

In your layout you can get gamescount value like

<?php echo $this->gamescount; ?>