I'm trying to build a simple PHP MVC framework. What I have right now is a basic set-up with a router that sends the request to the right controller, so I'm making the URL
/blog/[id]
Resolve to a class method like
Blog->singlePost();
Within singlePost(); I then interact with the model to get the right blog post and send it off to the view. The basic MVC triad is all there.
But pages are more complex than this. I've got a sidebar that I need to fill with data (from the database and other sources). I've got a main menu to build, I need to show the details for the current logged in user, and more. But, that said, I don't need all of these sections on every page.
My question is, where do I initiate/build all these various shared sections for the view?
My options that I can think of are:
Have every controller send a request for the required additional sections to be built (would have to update every controller each time something is added, no way)
When mapping the URL's, define a group that the route belongs to that loads in all the required sections (Not ideal, not every section will be needed on every page, could get messy)
Have the View (or Template) embed these sections on-demand. So the data for these sections would not be retrieved until the view explicitly asks for the data (The basic functionality of this seems quite appealing, but does it break the rules of what the view should do?)
Something else?
3 Seems quite appealing to me because I'd like for my templates (that will be dynamic and switchable via a template system) to be able to request a section on any page. So one template may show the "Top 10 Blog Posts" on the homepage, but another may not, so there's no point in loading it. I see that with Symfony/Twig, you can do this: http://symfony.com/doc/2.0/book/templating.html#embedding-controllers
Is this a good idea for various modules on a site? Or should everything be loaded before the view starts being processed?
Related
I want the user's profile to show everything (logged in navbar, textbox they use to post their content on and all of their content) and then show their profile with a logged out navbar, selected content the user wants to show and no textbox to post content.
I am breaking up the html files (e.g. header, footer and main content) into separate php files. Is that a good idea if I want to implement the above said ?
I'm still developing on localhost but here's the current file structure which is a bit messy. I'm also trying to implement MVC but due to my lack of knowledge so far, it hasn't been done.
However you seem fit, but nice practice could be dividing up backend / frontend. Or have a public and a private directory as top layer, then go from there.
And yes, breaking up your files in header.php, *content.php and footer.php is smart for what you want. By doing this, you allow yourself to edit the main parts of you page independently, without having to update many html or php files. Just one file will do for every page.
Also google stuff like "common practice" for php structures.
Account for REST in your workflow How to create a RESTfull api
This Stackoverflow on html/php inlining is also usefull maybe.
I am going to write a super small cms with https://github.com/panique/mini/
Now I want to add a small pages section in the Admin of the site (this can be done easily ).
The advice part comes here:
The url of the mini framework is mostly easy, its /controller/method ( if its the index method then it won't needed to be shown in the url ).
So there is a file which checks if the controller is existing so it can load it.
But the thing is an user is not going to create a controller every time after creating a page.
What would be the best approach to do this ?
This file is checking if that controller exist: https://github.com/panique/mini/blob/master/application/core/application.php
Thanks in advance
The way this handles routing, is much like CodeIgniter. The path would be controller/method/arg1/arg2/arg3..., so you can write a controller, define a method which accepts one (or more) arguments to load user pages.
Assume, user has created a page named news. He/She may load the page via URL pages/view/news.
Let me know if this question needs more clarification.
I am a front-end developer, and I usually use Wordpress with lots of custom fields to put together a CMS for clients.
A current client wants a design portfolio site that initially presents a grid of images that link to projects, but instead of loading a new page on click, the new content loads and fades in smoothly.
I figure the simplest way to do this kind of thing is to load everything up front on one page with ajax (a loading screen is OK), and then just show/hide/move content with jQuery.
The request I am having trouble with is being able to have specific URL's for different projects and images. The client wants a URL scheme like here:
http://collins1.com/work/bp-helios-house/3
Where the number at the end causes a specific image to load in the given project. It seems like this would be simple enough using php variables where like:
http://www.whatever.com?project=3&image=2
And using those to manipulate the initial AJAX load.
But how is this accomplished using a more traditional (pretty) URL structure like the example? If I am building the site as one page loading content, won't the browser attempt to load that as a page and just come up with a 404?
Bonus: How do you change the URL in the address bar to create these links as the user navigates the site without reloading the page?
Thanks!
what you see there, is called url routing. Basically, some server rule that rewrites the url in a proper way, depending on server and scripting language used.
for example, the url
http://server.com/foo/bar
MAY be redirected to
http://server.com/index.php?foo=bar
If you need a lightweight framework to handle this, take a look at www.slimframework.com
If you want real pretty urls you are going to need a server-side framework for url routing and will require you to get into php or ruby on rails. If you want a pure front end solution you can fake it in javascript using hash fragments. For how to do this see
http://backbonejs.org/#Router
http://www.asual.com/jquery/address/
http://benalman.com/projects/jquery-hashchange-plugin/
I'm trying to create a page that displays certain widgets/includes dependent on the users permissions. I'm quite new to CodeIgniter and MVC.
Example.
I have a calendar. This has a controller, model and view and it needs to be included on other pages.
I want this calendar and a number of other similar 'widgets' to be displayed on one page. This page currently has a controller and view.
I know I shouldn't be loading a controller from another controller, but can't see a way round it.
Can you load multiple controllers from a helper, or do I need some form of template?
Thanks,
Jacqui
It sounds to me like you are looking for Modular Extensions for CodeIgniter. This allows you to break an application into modules that can be called from one another. In your case, you would have a calendar module which you could call from your other modules.
What you might be looking for is something called Layouts. Codeigniter does not have such a feature out of the box but layouts are basically delegating a (front-controller) request across multiple actions. Each action works on it's own and has it's own view assigned.
The layout will take care to put this all together into one output then.
This methodology takes care as well that you don't call one controller from another controller so you keep code apart that does not belong to each other or would get messed up because it does too much at once.
This discussion might be interesting for you: Codeigniter layouts?, the Codeigniter FAQ has more about it as well and more specifically Header and footer and menu on every page in the wiki.
So I've built my site in Code Igniter and there are a number of pages where I feel it'd be easiest if the client could edit the content inline - much like what MojoMotor offers.
I'm not interested in using mojomotor but I wondered if anyone had done anything like this for their code igniter project?
As an idea of how it could work:
I was thinking that the client admin user could login to the normal custom built admin CMS area. After logged in, with session set, they can browse out to the public site for selected pages.
These pages will have a check for that admin session built in and if it's present, it can include a js file, which will overlay an admin banner and somehow enable the fields (perhaps content divs with a certain id or class relating to the corresponding table/field in DB) for editing.
--EDIT--
I've seen quite a few js inline editors around. I guess my confusion is over how best to integrate them with my database and controllers - i.e. idea of having the div id/class somehow map to the db field.
The bottom line is that MojoMotor is a CodeIgniter app and not a library. Therefore trying to work the code into your existing CodeIgniter project is not really an option.
But if you're willing, you can integrate your CodeIgniter project into MojoMotor and have the benefits of both. Here is a series of articles written on how to do this.
This is one example of the code you are looking for . You'll have to adapt the method for use with CI