username as controller codeigniter - php

Question

I am trying to develop a social network where people can visit mysite.com/username. I used the _remap function and I got it working, however it is not loading any of my other controllers. Can someone be of assistance please?
This is my default controller:
if ( ! defined('BASEPATH')) exit('No direct script access allowed');
class Welcome extends CI_Controller {
public function index($username = NULL)
{
$this->load->model('user_model');
if ($this->user_model->is_a_username($username)) {
$data['title'] = $username;
$data['main_content'] = 'users/profile_page';
$this->load->view('shared/template',$data);
} else {
$this->home();
}
}
public function _remap($method, $params = array())
{
if (method_exists($this, $method))
{
return call_user_func_array(array($this, $method), $params);
}
show_404();
}
public function home()
{
if ($this->ion_auth->logged_in()) {
$data['title'] = 'Carnect';
$data['main_content'] = 'users/wall_page';
$this->load->view('shared/template',$data); #if logged in show the user's wall
} else {
$data['title'] = 'Carnect';
$data['main_content'] = 'welcome/index';
$this->load->view('shared/template',$data); #if not logged in show the home page
}
}
}
and this is my routes file:
if ( ! defined('BASEPATH')) exit('No direct script access allowed');
$route['default_controller'] = "welcome";
$route['404_override'] = '';
$route['login'] = "auth/login";
$route['logout'] = "auth/logout";
$route['register'] = "auth/create_user";
/*$route['news'] = "news/index";
$route['politics'] = "politics/index";
$route['culture'] = "culture/index";
$route['messages'] = "messages/index";*/
$route['(:any)/(:any)'] = "$1/$2";
$route['(:any)/(:any)/(:any)'] = "$1/$2/$3";
$route['(.*)'] = 'welcome/index/$1';
An example of one of the controllers that will not load..
session_start();
class News extends CI_Controller {
function News()
{
parent::Controller();
}
function index() {
$data['title'] = 'Politics';
$data['main_content'] = 'news/index';
$this->load->view('shared/template',$data);
}
}

Answer 1

I am working on a project that has a similar requirement on those urls.
I did it by adding route like this:
$routes['news'] = 'news/index';
or
$routes['news'] = 'news';
which are exactly lines that you've commented.
Sadly, It isn't possible without those lines (at least I couldn't do it).
If your URL was: example.com/news/index, it would match the rule $routes['(:any)/(:any)'], but if it was example.com/news, it wouldn't match anything and go to your last rule.
CodeIgniter's Routing doesn't take real segments, but the uri segments shown in the url. Therefore, your url example.com/news would be interpreted as a $username = news.
You'd have to do this uri routing for each url which only has 1 uri segment. You'd want to make sure no user has the same username with your controllers or he/she can never visit the user page.

Answer 2

You have to write a rule in application/config/routes.php file just add a following line
$route['(:any)'] = "welcome/index/$1";
You can access by using http://example.com/username if your have added .htaccess rule for removing index.php file from url or you can access like http://example.com/index.php/username