Output variable not being set CodeIgniter - php

Question

I'm working on a CodeIgniter system with the Grocery_CRUD extension. I am trying to integrate a login system with a CRUD application.
Currently I am getting this error when the user logs in, where the CRUD app should be displayed:
Severity: Notice
Message: Undefined variable: output
Filename: views/members_area.php
Line Number: 13
This is the line the error is occuring on: <?php echo $output; ?>
I realise that $output is not being set but I can't see why!! Any ideas?
This is my entire members_area.php file: View
<?php
echo '<span class="italic">'.date("l, F d, Y " ,time()).'</span>';
echo '<h3>Welcome: '.$this->session->userdata('username').' '. anchor('logout/signout', 'logout').'</h3>';
?>
<a href='<?php echo site_url('site/dishes_management')?>'>Dishes</a> |
<a href='<?php echo site_url('site/orders_management')?>'>Orders</a>
<?php echo $output; ?>
This is my site.php file: Controller
<?php
class Site extends CI_Controller{
function __construct(){
parent::__construct();
$this->is_logged_in();
$this->load->database();
$this->load->helper('url');
$this->load->library('grocery_CRUD');
}
function members_area($output = null){
$this->load->view('members_area', $output);
}
function is_logged_in(){
$is_logged_in = $this->session->userdata('is_logged_in');
if(!isset($is_logged_in) || $is_logged_in != true){
echo 'You need to login to access this page. Login';
die();
}
function dishes_management()
{
try{
$crud = new grocery_CRUD();
$crud->set_theme('datatables');
$crud->set_table('dishes');
$crud->set_subject('Dish');
$crud->required_fields('dish_name');
$crud->columns('dish_name','dish_desc','dish_price', 'dish_cat');
$output = $crud->render();
$this->members_area($output);
}catch(Exception $e){
show_error($e->getMessage().' --- '.$e->getTraceAsString());
}
}
function orders_management()
{
$crud = new grocery_CRUD();
$crud->set_relation('customerNumber','customers','{contactLastName} {contactFirstName}');
$crud->display_as('customerNumber','Customer');
$crud->set_table('orders');
$crud->set_subject('Order');
$crud->unset_add();
$crud->unset_delete();
$output = $crud->render();
$this->members_area($output);
}
}
}
?>
By default I would like the members_area.php to have output set to display items from the dishes table. This does not seem to be working.
Any help, as always is much appreciated!

Answer 1

have you tried enclosing the output inside an array ?
$this->load->view('members_area', array('output'=>$output));
or
$output['output'] = $output;
$this->load->view('members_area', $output);
You must send it on the views as two dimensional array, codeigniter is trying to find an output key from the given data but cannot find it since you have not supplied the proper data for the view to search from.