Loading Codeigniter library from a different folder under application folder - php

Question

Hi I am having an issue
Say I have a folder structure in CodeIgniter
application/
controllers/
models/
views/
gmail_library/
Now I have written a controller
class invite_friends extends CI_Controller {
function __construct() {
parent::__construct();
$this->load->gmail_library('Config'); // this line is giving me error
session_start();
}
}
How can I set this thing like this?

Answer 1

First of all, note that CodeIgniter doesn't use overloading by __call() to implement dynamic methods. Thus there is no way to get such a gmail_library() methods to work.
The conventional method
From the User Guide:
Your library classes should be placed within your
application/libraries folder, as this is where CodeIgniter will look
for them when they are initialized.
If you're using CI Loader class to load a library or helper, you should follow CI's conventions.
application/libraries/Myclass.php
$this->load->library('myclass');
$this->myclass->my_method();
Using relative paths
1) You put your library files in sub-directories within the main libraries folder:
application/libraries/gmail/Gmail_config.php
I renamed your Config.php file name to prevent the occurrence of conflict with CI config core class.
$this->load->library('gmail/gmail_config');
2) Also you can use relative path within the Loader::library() method to load the library file from the outside of the library folder, as follows:
The path to the file is relative. So you can use ../ to go one UP level in path.
Again: I renamed your Config.php file name to prevent the occurrence of conflict with CI config core class.
$this->load->library('../gmail_library/Gmail_config');

Answer 2

An old question, I know, but I came across this looking for a way to use classes (libraries) from outside the application folder and I liked to keep it in 'the CI way of doing this'. I ended up extending the CI_Loaderclass:
I basically copied the _ci_load_class function and added an absolute path
<? if (!defined('BASEPATH')) exit('No direct script access allowed');
class MY_Loader extends CI_Loader {
protected $absPath = '/home/xxxxx/[any-path-you-like]/common/';
/**
* Load class
*
* This function loads the requested class.
*
* #param string the item that is being loaded
* #param mixed any additional parameters
* #param string an optional object name
* #return void
*/
public function commonLibrary($class, $params = NULL, $object_name = NULL)
{
// Get the class name, and while we're at it trim any slashes.
// The directory path can be included as part of the class name,
// but we don't want a leading slash
$class = str_replace('.php', '', trim($class, '/'));
// Was the path included with the class name?
// We look for a slash to determine this
$subdir = '';
if (($last_slash = strrpos($class, '/')) !== FALSE)
{
// Extract the path
$subdir = substr($class, 0, $last_slash + 1);
// Get the filename from the path
$class = substr($class, $last_slash + 1);
}
// We'll test for both lowercase and capitalized versions of the file name
foreach (array(ucfirst($class), strtolower($class)) as $class)
{
$subclass = $this->absPath.'libraries/'.$subdir.config_item('subclass_prefix').$class.'.php';
// Is this a class extension request?
if (file_exists($subclass))
{
$baseclass = BASEPATH.'libraries/'.ucfirst($class).'.php';
if ( ! file_exists($baseclass))
{
log_message('error', "Unable to load the requested class: ".$class);
show_error("Unable to load the requested class: ".$class);
}
// Safety: Was the class already loaded by a previous call?
if (in_array($subclass, $this->_ci_loaded_files))
{
// Before we deem this to be a duplicate request, let's see
// if a custom object name is being supplied. If so, we'll
// return a new instance of the object
if ( ! is_null($object_name))
{
$CI =& get_instance();
if ( ! isset($CI->$object_name))
{
return $this->_ci_init_class($class, config_item('subclass_prefix'), $params, $object_name);
}
}
$is_duplicate = TRUE;
log_message('debug', $class." class already loaded. Second attempt ignored.");
return;
}
include_once($baseclass);
include_once($subclass);
$this->_ci_loaded_files[] = $subclass;
return $this->_ci_init_class($class, config_item('subclass_prefix'), $params, $object_name);
}
// Lets search for the requested library file and load it.
$is_duplicate = FALSE;
foreach ($this->_ci_library_paths as $path)
{
$filepath = $this->absPath.'libraries/'.$subdir.$class.'.php';
// Does the file exist? No? Bummer...
if ( ! file_exists($filepath))
{
continue;
}
// Safety: Was the class already loaded by a previous call?
if (in_array($filepath, $this->_ci_loaded_files))
{
// Before we deem this to be a duplicate request, let's see
// if a custom object name is being supplied. If so, we'll
// return a new instance of the object
if ( ! is_null($object_name))
{
$CI =& get_instance();
if ( ! isset($CI->$object_name))
{
return $this->_ci_init_class($class, '', $params, $object_name);
}
}
$is_duplicate = TRUE;
log_message('debug', $class." class already loaded. Second attempt ignored.");
return;
}
include_once($filepath);
$this->_ci_loaded_files[] = $filepath;
return $this->_ci_init_class($class, '', $params, $object_name);
}
} // END FOREACH
// One last attempt. Maybe the library is in a subdirectory, but it wasn't specified?
if ($subdir == '')
{
$path = strtolower($class).'/'.$class;
return $this->_ci_load_class($path, $params);
}
// If we got this far we were unable to find the requested class.
// We do not issue errors if the load call failed due to a duplicate request
if ($is_duplicate == FALSE)
{
log_message('error', "Unable to load the requested class: ".$class);
show_error("Unable to load the requested class: ".$class);
}
}
}
Put the file MY_Loader.php in the application/core folder and load your libs with:
$this->load->commonLibrary('optional_subfolders/classname', 'classname');
$this->classname->awesome_method();