Well, I have been thinking a lot about the first real CodeIgniter site I am coding. I want to modularize the site in such a way that I have a controller that formats the navbar, one that formats a multipurpose right column, and one that formats the content area.
My idea is to have a controller for each state of any part of the site (an example would be the right column, it would have 3 states; new posts, related posts, and search filters). I would also have the content area be many different states aswell (things like search results, view post, new posts, etc).
The problem is that I can’t find a way to take multiple controller outputs and compile it into a single template (notice, I said controllers, not views).
I have seen the HMVC extension, but that is going to far for my first site, and am hoping for a more simplistic solution (unless you can prove me wrong, and show that HMVC is easier than what I’ve seen).
This seems a little wonky to me in an MVC model.
If you’re using a single stateful view for your right panel that might change state based on input (i.e. which page the user is currently on), then I would add a model for the panel. The controller’s action would be responsible for setting the correct model state (i.e. “you’re in home page state”). The model could be responsible for telling the right panel view which child views to load.
That’s how I’d probably implement something like that anyway. HMVC seems overkill and with this example, wouldn’t be used as intended.