Doubts in integration with PHPExcel and CodeIgniter - php

Question

I'm with a doubt at this post:
http://www.ahowto.net/php/easily-integrateload-phpexcel-into-codeigniter-framework/
I've done up to libraries part (Excel.php).
But in the tutorial, where it starts Example Usage, where exactly I need to put all that code? In a new controller? Here in my project I tried to create a new Controller called Report. In report I've this code:
public function readReport() {
$this->load->library('excel');
$this->excel=PHPExcel_IOFactory::load(APPPATH."/third_party/teste.xlsx");
$this->excel->setActiveSheetIndex(0);
//get some value from a cell
$number_value= $this->excel->getActiveSheet()->getCell('C1')->getValue();
$data['header'] = $number_value;
$this->load->view('pages/home', $data);
}
But I have also a Pages controller to control the pages of Views, and when I try to output something of PHP Excel is not possible. In my Pages.php I've wrote: $data['header'] = $number_value; and in view . But the variable "number_value" is not in Pages.php because it's only at Report.php. How can I do to output the excel data at my home.php (view) correctly?
Here is my pages.php controller
class Pages extends CI_Controller {
public function view ($page = 'home') {
if (!file_exists(APPPATH.'views/pages/'.$page.'.php')) {
show_404();
}
$data['title'] = str_replace("_", " ", $page);
$data['header'] = $number_value;
$this->load->helper('url');
$this->load->view('templates/header', $data);
$this->load->view('pages/'.$page, $data);
$this->load->view('templates/footer', $data);
}
}

Answer 1

I'm not very familiar with PHPExcel but here are some thoughts.
First, to use a library in a Controller it must be loaded in that controller. You cannot access one controller from another. You could duplicate the code from Report in Pages but that seems a waste. You need reuseable code.
One "reuseable" approach is to create a model that uses the excel library. This will make it easy to reuse PHPExcel code just by loading the model in any controller.
A model version including a readReport() function might look like this.
class excel_model extends CI_Model
{
protected $excel;
function __construct()
{
parent::__construct();
$this->load->library('excel');
}
function readReport()
{
$this->excel = PHPExcel_IOFactory::load(APPPATH."/third_party/teste.xlsx");
$this->excel->setActiveSheetIndex(0);
//get some value from a cell
return $this->excel->getActiveSheet()->getCell('C1')->getValue();
}
}
Pages controller should be modified as follows.
class Pages extends CI_Controller
{
public function view($page = 'home')
{
//The following check isn't needed, codeigniter will do this automatically
//if (!file_exists(APPPATH.'views/pages/'.$page.'.php')) {
//show_404();
//}
$this->load->model('excel_model');
$this->load->helper('url');
$data['title'] = str_replace("_", " ", $page);
$data['header'] = $this->excel_model->readReport();
$this->load->view('templates/header', $data);
//You don't have to keep sending $data to the views because
//any variables loaded by the first call to load->view()
//will be visible the all other views loaded in this function.
$this->load->view('pages/'.$page);
$this->load->view('templates/footer');
}
}