Creating Module for Admin and Clients with Perfex CRM - Assistance Required - php

Question

I am working on creating a module for prefex CRM. What this module will be doing is pretty simple, but is quickly turning into more than I anticipated. Allow me to explain what I'm doing and where I'm stuck. I am hoping someone can offer some advice.
Admin View
Admin Module that adds menu item 'Mail' to the side nav bar
When clicking this menu item, a page loads that uses the already uses the drag & drop file upload feature prefex CRM has built in.
When a staff member uploads a file, a modal launches with a form that asks users who the upload should be assigned to. It should use autocomplete to select the customer to attach the file to.
The upload date/time is recorded in database and the record entry in the DB is given a GUID
Client View
Client module that adds menu item 'Mail' to the client navbar
When clicking this menu item, a page loads that displays a table. This table shows all of the entries of file uploads from the admin view. The table should have an image of the scanned mail, the day/time received, and another column that will be blank for now.
So that's what I'm trying to accomplish. In an effort to understand structure of Prefex CRM modules better, I deconstructed the Prefex CRM Employee Chat module. It's hard to compare apples to oranges in this case, but it did help me to develop a file structure which is as follows:
-assets
--css
--js
--module_includes
-controllers
--admin_controller
--client_controller
-models
-uploads
-views
--admin_view
--client_view
mail.php
index.php
install.php
Now that you have an understanding of what I'm doing this is where I need assistance-
Where I'm stuck: I'm looking to recycle the file upload feature that is already built inside of Prefex CRM. Where the file is stored normally is fine and does not need to be changed. I'm unsure of how to reuse these built in functions to create the Mail_ClientsController.php and Mail_Controller.php, as well as some uncertaintly on the mail_admin_view.php, and mail_clients_view.php
Could anyone share some examples of some working modules for Perfex that could shed some light on how to connect these?
mail.php page
<?php
/**
* Ensures that the module init file can't be accessed directly, only within the application.
*/
defined('BASEPATH') or exit('No direct script access allowed');
/*
Module Name: Mail
Description: Client online mailbox module for Perfex CRM system
Version: 2.3.0
Requires at least: 2.3.*
*/
define('BSSI_MAIL_MODULE_NAME', 'bssi_mail');
define('BSSI_MAIL_MODULE_UPLOAD_FOLDER', module_dir_path(BSSI_MAIL_MODULE_NAME, 'uploads'));
$CI = &get_instance();
/**
* Register the activation
*/
register_activation_hook(BSSI_MAIL_MODULE_NAME, 'bssi_mail_activation_hook');
/**
* The activation function
*/
function bssi_mail_activation_hook()
{
require(__DIR__ . '/install.php');
}
/**
* Register new menu item in admin sidebar menu
*/
if (staff_can('view', BSSI_MAIL_MODULE_NAME)) {
if (get_option('bssi_staff_can_delete_messages') == '1') {
$CI->app_menu->add_sidebar_menu_item('bssi_mail', [
'name' => 'BSSI Mail',
'href' => admin_url('bssi_mail/mail_admin_view'),
'icon' => 'fa fa-envelope',
'position' => 6,
]);
}
}
Mail_ClientsController.php (unsure of which functions to put here for upload feature)
<?php defined('BASEPATH') or exit('No direct script access allowed');
class Prchat_ClientsController extends ClientsController
{
}
Mail_Clients_View.php
<?php defined('BASEPATH') or exit('No direct script access allowed'); ?>
<div class="bssiClient">
<div class="container">
<div class="row">
<div class="col">
<table class="bssiMailTable">
<thead>
<th>Mail Image</th>
<th>Date Received</th>
<th>Actions</th>
</thead>
<tr>
<td>Image Query</td>
<td>Get Date Query</td>
<td>Action Items</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Mail_admin_view.php
<?php defined('BASEPATH') or exit('No direct script access allowed'); ?>
<div class="bssiAdmin">
<div class="container">
<div class="row">
<div class="col">
<table class="bssiAdminMailTable">
<thead>
<th>Mail Image</th>
<th>Date Received</th>
<th>Actions</th>
</thead>
<tr>
<td>Image Query</td>
<td>Get Date Query</td>
<td>Action Items</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

Answer 1

So in your controller/model you would need to load in the standard email model within your construct method. Perfex has a standard model it uses for distributing emails (can be seen under root > application > models > Emails_model.php)
$this->load->model('emails_model');
or if it's being called from outside of the admin controller (e.g. via a cron)
$this->ci->load->model('emails_model');
Within the standard Emails_model.php there is a function "send_simple_email()" which will allow you to send an email to any email address directly from Perfex
E.G.
$email = 'your_email#email.com';
$subject = 'Email Subject';
$message = 'Your Message';
$this->ci->emails_model->send_simple_email($email, $subject, $message);
For file upload, you should be looking at the standard file upload procedure within Perfex (take a look inside upload_helper.php, and you'll find a number of functions which will help you get a file uploaded.