Custom routing and controller function - php

Question

I have my routes.php as
$route['home'] = 'pages/home';
$route['login'] = 'pages/login';
$route['default_controller'] = 'pages/home';
and the controller pages.php as
class Pages extends CI_Controller {
public function home() {
$this->load->view('templates/header');
$this->load->view('pages/home');
$this->load->view('templates/one');
$this->load->view('templates/two');
$this->load->view('templates/footer');
}
public function login() {
//if ( ! file_exists('application/views/templates/'.$page.'.php')) {
// echo "no file";
// }
// $data['title'] = ucfirst($page);
$this->load->view('templates/header');
$this->load->view('templates/login');
$this->load->view('templates/footer');
}
}
Pre: I have just started with CodeIgniter and what I got from basic tutorial and after reading many stackoverflow answers is that a call for domain/login will be routed to function login in Pages class(controler) as per the the routing rule $route['login'] = 'pages/login';
The Problem: This simple code is showing 404 error. I am not getting it why it is so, as all the files are too present in templates folder. Also the normal call to domain works fine but if I call domain/home, again I get 404 error. Kindly help me what I am doing wrong.

Answer 1

So I am a bit new to CodeIgniter as well so I apologize at being so slow on this. The problem you are facing is that you haven't put in index.php. Your URL has to be domain/index.php/login. If you don't want to add index.php to every call then you must do the following:
add a .htaccess file in your application folder and have it look something like this:
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
# activate URL rewriting
RewriteEngine on
# the folders mentioned here will be accessible and not rewritten
RewriteCond $1 !^(resources|system|application|ext)
# do not rewrite for php files in the document root, robots.txt or the maintenance page
RewriteCond $1 !^([^\..]+\.php|robots\.txt)
# but rewrite everything else
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1 [L]
</IfModule>
<IfModule !mod_rewrite.c>
# If we don't have mod_rewrite installed, all 404's
# can be sent to index.php, and everything works as normal.
ErrorDocument 404 index.php
</IfModule>
Turn on mode_rewrite (How to enable mod_rewrite for Apache 2.2 or https://askubuntu.com/questions/48362/how-to-enable-mod-rewrite-in-apache)
Restart your server
This will forward all domain/login requests to your front controller (index.php). The line RewriteCond $1 !^(resources|system|application|ext) will allow you to make certain folders NOT get rewritten. So if you have a folder under application named "resources" instead of it getting forwarded to domain/index.php/resources it will simply go to domain/resources.
In actuality without an .htaccess file the process is like this:
Check for domain/front_controller/route pattern in the URI and see if route exists and forward appropriately
By doing domain/login you were not following the pattern and so a 404 was delivered. Adding the front_controller (index.php) to the URI makes it follow the route pattern and gets forwarded to your route config.
Some people think the front controller in their URI is "ugly" so they add in a mod_rewrite which basically adds in the front_controller to the URI every time that directory is accessed. This way they can stick to domain/controller/action. This is also considered more secure as the only directories that can be directly accessed are the ones that are specifically stated in the rewrite.

Answer 2

Got it now !
Actually defining the
base_url = 'mysite.com'
in config.php just works for calling the default_controller in routing rule, and so your while mysite.com call will work normal and show you the home page, *interpreting default_controller* routing rule, but any calls for mysite.com/xyz will fail, even you have a function xyz in the main controller with routing rule as $route['xyz'] = 'pages/home',
as rest all URL calls have to be made as
domain/index.php/controller/function/arg,
and as suggested by #Bill Garrison, and also from the developer user guide of codeigniter, one should write rules in the .htaccess to remove index.php from domain name, and the url to router will then work as normal !!
For people reading out, one big advice well read the documentation thoroughly before firing the doubts. :)