Third_party Views Path(s) Check in CodeIgniter 3 - php

Question

I'm trying to check if a view file really exists according to the third_party paths loaded
Normally, I'd check if a view exists with is_file(APPPATH.'/views/folder/'.$view)
I can retrieve every loaded third_party paths with get_package_paths (thanks to the comment of Tpojka) and then check in their folder views if the file exists,
but I was hoping for a 'direct' check, as if the ->view function would return false instead of redirecting to an error page
$html = $this->load->view($tpl,'',TRUE) ? $this->load->view($tpl,'',TRUE) : $another_template;
Though I realize there might be no other solutions that adding this manual check with a loop through the loaded paths and hide it in a CI_Load Class extension (application/core/MY_Loader) to give the apparance of a direct check in the controller:
EDIT: This is a bad idea, cause view() may return false to CI function that might not be designed for
class MY_Loader extends CI_Lodaer{
public function __construct() {
parent::__construct();
}
public function view($view, $vars = array(), $return = FALSE)
{
foreach( $this->get_package_paths( TRUE ) as $path )
{
// this will only retrieve html from the first file found
if( is_file( $path."/views/".$view ) ) return parent::view($view, $vars, $return);
}
// if no match
return false;
}
}
What I find annoying is that load->view already makes a check through the paths, so this solution will add a second check and increase server consumption..

Answer 1

Well in the end I choose this lukewarm solution :
Instead of extending the function view() for it to return false (and having to deal with it through CI then after !) , I just made a function is_view() in the application/core/MY_Loader.php
I'm not sure MY_Loader is the correct place to place such a function, but so far it did the trick for me ...
(thx Tpojka for the indication)
in application/core/MY_Loader.php
/**
* is_view
*
* Check if a view exists or not through the loaded paths
*
* #param string $view The relative path of the file
*
* #return string|bool string containing the path if file exists
* false if file is not found
*/
public function is_view($view)
{
// ! BEWARE $path contains a beginning trailing slash !
foreach( $this->get_package_paths( TRUE ) as $path )
{
// set path, check if extension 'php'
// (would be better using the constant/var defined for file extension of course)
$path_file = ( strpos($view,'.php') === false ) ? $path."views/".$view.'.php' : $path."views/".$view ;
// this will return the path at first match found
if( is_file( $path_file ) ) return $path."views/";
}
// if no match
return false;
}
and in application/controllers/Welcome.php
$view = "frames/my_html.php";
/*
* the view file should be in
* application/third_party/myapp/views/frames/my_html.php
*
* so far, if the file does not exists, and we try
* $this->load->view($view) will redirect to an error page
*/
// check if view exists and retrieve path
if($possible_path = $this->load->is_view($view))
{
//set the data array
$data = array("view_path"=>$possible_path);
// load the view knowing it exists
$this->load->view($view,$data)
}
else echo "No Template for this frame in any Paths !";
and of course in the view
<h1>My Frame</h1>
<p>
The path of this file is <=?$view_path?>
</p>