PHP Codeigniter Multiple Level Switch Statements - php

Question

I am re-building a website with PHP codeigniter that contains mostly static pages and some dynamic pages interspersed. The problem is, the pages are 1-5 layers deep within the navigation (ex. example.com/about/history/people/person/photos).
I'm not sure how to implement this in the controller. I currently have a crazy set of switch statements nested in switch statements. Here is a simple example:
class About extends MY_Controller
{
//**** INDEX page ****
public function index()
{
$this->setTitle('About');
$this->setDescription('About Stuff');
$this->loadView('about/index');
}
//-------------------------HISTORY section--------------------------------
public function history($sub1 = "", $sub2 = "", $sub3 = "", $sub4 = "")
{
$path = "";
switch($sub1){
//_____ PEOPLE section ____
case 'people':
switch($sub2){
//____ PERSON section ____
case 'person':
switch($sub3){
//**** PHOTOS page ****
case 'photos':
$this->setTitle('Photos');
$this->setDescription('Photo stuff');
$path = 'people/person/photos';
break;
//**** DOCUMENTS page ****
case 'documents':
//Load special scripts
$this->setTitle('Documents');
$this->setDescription('Document stuff');
$path = 'people/person/documents';
break;
//**** INDEX page ****
default:
$this->setTitle('Person');
$this->setDescription('Person stuff');
$path = 'people/person/index';
}
break;
//**** AnotherPerson page *****
case 'anotherPerson':
//Load database
$this->setTitle('AnotherPerson');
$this->setDescription('AnotherPerson stuff');
$path = 'people/anotherperson';
break;
//**** INDEX page ****
default:
$this->setTitle('People');
$this->setDescription('People stuff');
$path = 'people/index';
}
break;
//**** INDEX page ****
default:
$this->setTitle('History');
$this->setDescription('History stuff');
$path = 'index';
}
$this->loadView('about/history/' . $path );
}
}
I feel like I am approaching this incorrectly and it feels messy. So my question is: Is there a better (more compact/clean/dynamic) way of doing this?

Answer 1

You have a few options.
You could put the case statements in separate function. eg. if you've case 'documents' you could put this into a private function:
private function documents(){
//Load special scripts
$this->setTitle('Documents');
$this->setDescription('Document stuff');
$path = 'people/person/documents';
}
You could make an associative array with the title, description etc. in it and check if the variables are filled. After this you can call the array by with the $sub vars.