CodeIgniter global variable

Question

I am using $data in all my views $this->load->view('my_view', $data);

I have also autoload a Controller following this guide Extending Core Controller

But I want to make $data global because in views there is a sidebar which is constant for whole project and displays info fetched through db in autoloaded controller

Currently I have to manually write $data['todo'] for each and fetch info from autoloaded model.

Thank You.

Answer 1

1: Create MY_Controller in application/libraries with following:

class MY_Controller extends Controller { 
 var $data; 
 //constructor function 
}

2: Replace Controller to MY_Controller in all your controller files and load views with $this->data

class Contact extends Controller { //to.. } 
class Contact extends MY_Controller { 
 $this->load->view('contact_view', $this->data);
}

this way you can perform default functions that are applicable for whole site in MY_Controller like loading settings.

• Vilius Paulauskas: If it does not work, then try putting MY_Controller.php info application/core And if you change the prefix to something, then be sure to change it in config.php @ $config['subclass_prefix']

Answer 2

I ran into a similar problem earlier today. I found that an easier way, rather than globals, was to use constants. You can define a constants file that will load from your index.php file:

// Include additional constants
$defines_file = 'includes/defines.php';
if (file_exists($defines_file))
{
 require_once($defines_file);
} 

Then you can add your constants to the defines.php file:

define(MY_CONSTANT,'my constant info');

This way they will be available in any file throughout the system either directly: echo MY_CONSTANT; or you can assign them to variables.

I decided this way would be easier for me as I would only have 1 location to go to when/if I needed to change the constants.

More: http://codeigniter.com/forums/viewthread/56981/#280205

• Shishant: Its good idea and I am already using for all constant values but this is not suitable for me because I am getting the data from db which is different everytime. Using another include script wont let me use inbuilt CI database lib so I had to go this way

Answer 3

I used a helper function to call a global function!

eg.

function get_user($userid){
 $CI =& get_instance();
 $query = $CI->db->get_where('users', array('id' => $userid), 1, 0);
 foreach ($query->result() as $row){
 // Return a object with userdata!
 return $row;
 }
}

Now I have access to my userdata everywhere..

Answer 4

Rather than making the view data global, I'd recommend using HMVC to build a module to produce this sidebar view. HMVC is a nice clean way of coding partial views.

• b. e. hollenbeck: HVMC is overkill when you're talking about something as simple as partial views. If you have a partial view that doesn't change much, just load the view into the constant itself: define('MY_VIEW', $this->load->view('my_view', '', TRUE)); - then simply echo the MY_VIEW constant in your larger view. HVMC adds a lot of baggage for something as simple as this.
• Stephen Curran: Where in the code do you load the data needed to render the partial view?